The examples listed below from the BNC could all be paraphrased as
"already in [some year], something was happening" or "already in [some
year], something was the case". The example suggested by Nick (see
bottom of this message) means "already in [some year], an event took place".
The examples from the BNC all have past progressives in the main clause,
except for the first one, which has a stative verb ('be').
Nick's example has a simple past tense of an active verb in the main
clause. This is the usage which occurs in non-native English, and
strikes native speakers as, depending on point of view, either:
- charming
- just plain wrong
- an interesting interference error
- evidence of a new dialect of English
-- Martin Wynne Head of the Oxford Text Archive and AHDS Literature, Languages and LinguisticsOxford University Computing Services 13 Banbury Road Oxford UK - OX2 6NN Tel: +44 1865 283299 Fax: +44 1865 273275 martin.wynne@oucs.ox.ac.uk
Begin forwarded message:
> *From: *Costas Gabrielatos <c.gabrielatos@lancaster.ac.uk > <mailto:c.gabrielatos@lancaster.ac.uk>> > *Date: *7 March 2006 21:03:29 GMT > *To: *'Nicholas Sanders' <nick@semiotek.org > <mailto:nick@semiotek.org>>, corpora@lists.uib.no > <mailto:corpora@lists.uib.no> > *Subject: **RE: [Corpora-List] Re: 'Standard European English' ?* > *Reply-To: *c.gabrielatos@lancaster.ac.uk > <mailto:c.gabrielatos@lancaster.ac.uk> > > If the use of 'already' in the example is a characteristic of SEE, > what can > we make of these sentences from the BNC? > > Already in 1610 he was one of "a select number of the Lower House" who met > with the lord treasurer, Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury [q.v.], son > of his father's patron, to discuss impositions. [GTE 65] > > Already in 1914 he was exhorting the readers of Poetry (Chicago): [A1B > 1208] > > > Already in 1915 Pound was making this mistake about the rivers, for in > "Near > Perigord", which he published in that year, he declares: [A1B 154] > > Already in 1922, Wheatley was attacking the conventional view that > internationalism held the key to ending unemployment: [CE7 909] > > Already in 1926 ( The New Republic , 30 June) Tate was obliged -- > faced with > the aridity in diction and imagery of "The Hollow Men" -- to concede that > "It is possible that he has nothing more to say in poetry". [A1B 1476] > > Already in 1928 he was protesting that his own pronouncements at the > time of > the Imagist manifesto were tailored to the specific needs of 1914, and > should not be taken as binding fourteen years later. [A1B 1948] > > Costas Gabrielatos > > > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-corpora@lists.uib.no [mailto:owner-corpora@lists.uib.no] On > Behalf Of Nicholas Sanders > Sent: 07 March 2006 20:27 > To: corpora@lists.uib.no <mailto:corpora@lists.uib.no> > Subject: Re: [Corpora-List] Re: 'Standard European English' ? > > Does the panel agree that the use of "already" in the following is an > example of SEE? > > Already in 1976, UNESCO itself mentioned that this practice should > only be used where absolutely necessary... > > Nick > > > -- > > Nicholas J A Sanders > _____________________ > semiotek > > T: +44 [0]7092 153 409 > F: +44 [0]8707 059 093 > > nick@semiotek.org <mailto:nick@semiotek.org> > _____________________ > > > > >
--
Nicholas J A Sanders
_____________________
*/semiotek/*
*/ /*
T: +44 [0]7092 153 409
F: +44 [0]8707 059 093
nick@semiotek.org <mailto:nick@semiotek.org>
_____________________
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