ahold

[Dennis R. Preston]

No sweat; we haven't really had any good insights
into what a "word" is for years.

dInIs



>I am an 'alot' speller and yes for me, it seems like
>one word. I have to constantly remind myself that it's
>two. I can't really give you any more insight than
>that.
>
>Ed
>
>--- FRITZ JUENGLING
><juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US> wrote:
>
>>  I've seen 'awhile' a zillion times and 'alot' 8
>>  zillion times.  My question is 'what's going on in
>>  the heads of people who write this?" I do not mean
>>  this this in a derogatory way-I am really curious to
>>  know what they are thinking--is 'awhile' one word
>>  for them; does it mean 'period or time'?  I guess
>>  'alot' and 'ahold' would be in the same question.
>>  It just seems odd to me, as each set is made up of
>>  two clearly separate words for me.
>>
>>  On a similar note of Sprachgefühl, the other day in
>>  several of my classes, we were discussing the use of
>>  tenses in English.  I used my age-old example of
>>  "Did you get the mail yet?"   I asked the classes
>>  whether this sentence bothers them.  Usually, I get
>>  about a third to half who are bothered by it.  One
>>  girl, in spite of all my explanations, just couldn't
>>  see how it could be a problem in any way and did not
>>  understand the conflict that this sentence creates
>>  in my head.  I pointed out that this is an example
>>  of different Sprachgefühle that we have.
>>
>>  Fritz J
>>
>>  >>> zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU 06/13/05 09:18AM >>>
>>  On Jun 13, 2005, at 8:49 AM, FRITZ JUENGLING asks
>>  me:
>>
>>  > How 'bout  "for awhile"? Does that bother you?
>>
>>  as MWDEU points out, the spelling "awhile" for the
>>  object of a
>>  preposition has been very widely deplored, but it is
>>  nevertheless
>>  very frequent.
>>
>>  this is entirely a matter of spelling, and in
>>  matters of spelling my
>>  own practice is pretty conservative; english
>>  spelling is full of
>>  arbitrariness, so spelling is one place where i
>>  think a fairly high
>>  degree of uniformity is desirable.  i myself would
>>  write "for a
>>  while", especially since "while" here is modifiable,
>>  as in "for a
>>  (very) long while", in which case the article "a"
>>  must be separated
>>  from "while". (similar reasoning applies to "alot"
>>  and, as i pointed
>>  out in my first posting, "ahold".)
>>
>>  but i recognize that widespread nonstandard
>>  spellings always have a
>>  good motivation and are not evidences of ignorance,
>>  illiteracy, or
>>  anything of the sort, so i don't froth at the mouth,
>>  despair that
>>  civilization is coming to an end, or peg the writers
>>  who use them as
>>  inferior beings.
>>
>>  i notice "for awhile", but i understand that that's
>>  mostly just me.
>>  i don't alter it in my students' writing.
>>
>>  arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)
>>
>
>
>
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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
A-740 Wells Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-3099
Fax: (517) 432-2736
preston at msu.edu