What do all the different meanings of 'as' share in common?
Prof. Brooks Landon, U. Iowa, Ph.D. U. Texas at Austin. Building Great Sentences: How to Write the Kinds of Sentences You Love to Read (Great Courses) (2013). p 136.
As a matter of fact, as is a word with as many different uses as to stun those of us who don’t think systematically, perhaps obsessively, about language. Fowler’s Modern English Usage identifies a whopping thirteen different ways or senses in which the word as can be used. I mention this only because it is from little choices, such as those concerning our choice between as and for, that we build individual writing styles, and as much as possible, I’d like my own writing style to be the result of choices that I can, if need be, explain, even though those choices have become so habitual or so natural for me that I certainly am no longer conscious of them when I write.
Etymonline contends that as is the
worn-down form of Old English alswa "quite so, wholly so," literally "all so" (see also), fully established by c. 1400. Equivalent to so; any distinction in use is purely idiomatic. Related to German als "as, than," from Middle High German also.
How did "all so" or "so" (alswa) proliferate to all these different meanings?
What semantic idea or concept underlies this polysemy/polyfunctionality?
What do all these different meanings have in common?
etymology
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Prof. Brooks Landon, U. Iowa, Ph.D. U. Texas at Austin. Building Great Sentences: How to Write the Kinds of Sentences You Love to Read (Great Courses) (2013). p 136.
As a matter of fact, as is a word with as many different uses as to stun those of us who don’t think systematically, perhaps obsessively, about language. Fowler’s Modern English Usage identifies a whopping thirteen different ways or senses in which the word as can be used. I mention this only because it is from little choices, such as those concerning our choice between as and for, that we build individual writing styles, and as much as possible, I’d like my own writing style to be the result of choices that I can, if need be, explain, even though those choices have become so habitual or so natural for me that I certainly am no longer conscious of them when I write.
Etymonline contends that as is the
worn-down form of Old English alswa "quite so, wholly so," literally "all so" (see also), fully established by c. 1400. Equivalent to so; any distinction in use is purely idiomatic. Related to German als "as, than," from Middle High German also.
How did "all so" or "so" (alswa) proliferate to all these different meanings?
What semantic idea or concept underlies this polysemy/polyfunctionality?
What do all these different meanings have in common?
etymology
asked 6 mins ago
AntinatalistAntinatalist
1
New contributor
Antinatalist is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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Prof. Brooks Landon, U. Iowa, Ph.D. U. Texas at Austin. Building Great Sentences: How to Write the Kinds of Sentences You Love to Read (Great Courses) (2013). p 136.
As a matter of fact, as is a word with as many different uses as to stun those of us who don’t think systematically, perhaps obsessively, about language. Fowler’s Modern English Usage identifies a whopping thirteen different ways or senses in which the word as can be used. I mention this only because it is from little choices, such as those concerning our choice between as and for, that we build individual writing styles, and as much as possible, I’d like my own writing style to be the result of choices that I can, if need be, explain, even though those choices have become so habitual or so natural for me that I certainly am no longer conscious of them when I write.
Etymonline contends that as is the
worn-down form of Old English alswa "quite so, wholly so," literally "all so" (see also), fully established by c. 1400. Equivalent to so; any distinction in use is purely idiomatic. Related to German als "as, than," from Middle High German also.
How did "all so" or "so" (alswa) proliferate to all these different meanings?
What semantic idea or concept underlies this polysemy/polyfunctionality?
What do all these different meanings have in common?
etymology
asked 6 mins ago
AntinatalistAntinatalist
1
New contributor
Antinatalist is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Prof. Brooks Landon, U. Iowa, Ph.D. U. Texas at Austin. Building Great Sentences: How to Write the Kinds of Sentences You Love to Read (Great Courses) (2013). p 136.
As a matter of fact, as is a word with as many different uses as to stun those of us who don’t think systematically, perhaps obsessively, about language. Fowler’s Modern English Usage identifies a whopping thirteen different ways or senses in which the word as can be used. I mention this only because it is from little choices, such as those concerning our choice between as and for, that we build individual writing styles, and as much as possible, I’d like my own writing style to be the result of choices that I can, if need be, explain, even though those choices have become so habitual or so natural for me that I certainly am no longer conscious of them when I write.
Etymonline contends that as is the
worn-down form of Old English alswa "quite so, wholly so," literally "all so" (see also), fully established by c. 1400. Equivalent to so; any distinction in use is purely idiomatic. Related to German als "as, than," from Middle High German also.
How did "all so" or "so" (alswa) proliferate to all these different meanings?
What semantic idea or concept underlies this polysemy/polyfunctionality?
What do all these different meanings have in common?
etymology
etymology
asked 6 mins ago
AntinatalistAntinatalist
1
New contributor
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