"as such"

[Damien Hall]

I still remember an occasion almost twenty years ago when a
reasonably-sized group of us were going from pub to pub in Oxford looking
for one with enough table-space for us all to sit and drink. As we were
entertaining a guest speaker, this was more of a requirement than it would
usually have been, but many pubs were full. Anyway, after coming out of the
second too-full one, one of my companions suggested:

'We could try [name of another pub], as such.'

I don't know whether it is relevant that he was British or not. Anyway, I
always interpreted this 'as such' as meaning 'I suppose' or something, from
the context, and this was what boggled my mind; I assumed that the wrong
phrase had come to my friend's mind in the heat of the moment. But, given
the clear 'therefore' meaning that's been posted on, I suppose this 'as
such' could be an extension of that meaning, or a different contextual use
of it:

'[Those other pubs were full, so] we could try [another one], therefore.'

Damien

--
Damien Hall

University of York
Department of Language and Linguistic Science
Heslington
YORK
YO10 5DD
UK

Tel. (office) +44 (0)1904 432665
     (mobile) +44 (0)771 853 5634
Fax  +44 (0)1904 432673

http://www.york.ac.uk/res/aiseb

http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/people/pages/hall.htm

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