Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi David,

I don't know if you realise it or not. But with the analysis of the  
uses of plod in Australian and English variants of English you have  
shown that you do not disagree with their having an uncancellable  
meaning. But rather that you disagree with what that uncancellable  
meaning is.

Of course, as we have already agreed. Everything can ultimately be  
cancelled. We just need to make a new usage and get enough people to  
use the word in the new way and we've cancelled the meaning. But as  
Karl has already pointed out I don't think Rolf was ever suggesting  
that languages do not evolve in this way. He was analysing a very  
specific snapshot of the language.

James Christian

Quoting 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.
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