Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

Hi James,

> Hi David,
>
> I believe this has already been demonstrated to you. It's all a case of 
> relativity. If we say somebody runs quickly we expect their run pace to 
> be above average run pace. When we imagine somebody plodding quickly we 
> expect the plod pace to be quicker than average but still somewhat 
> slower than average walking pace. Your use of the word 'quickly' does 
> not mean that the person was moving quickly. It just means that their 
> plod pace was quicker than average.

James, I've already told you that the use in Australian English has no 
contextual relativity implied. Sure, "plod" has been chosen because the 
meaning of the word is suitable to designate "walking" vis-a-vis 
"running". But the use I'm referring to can also be used of running. 
Probably not sprinting, but running would be acceptable. The use has to 
with heaviness or sound, not slowness. And like I already stated, it is 
quite difficult to see how "slow" is the pure uncancellable semantics of 
the word in any case -- as if "plod" means "slow". It does not. It means 
"laborious walking" or "doing action indicated by adjunct phrase slowly" 
or "heavy walking".

Regards,
David Kummerow.