[Corpora-List] adverbial 'behind'

[E. Bashir]

But this prepositional usage could also be a dialectal usage of some group/region, in which the preposition 'behind' has the suggested meaning "controlling or responsible for (an event or 
plan)". In this case, it would mean 'I am sorry they lost their daddy because of what happened.'

E. Bashir

--- On Sat, 5/29/10, Ken Litkowski <ken at clres.com> wrote:

From: Ken Litkowski <ken at clres.com>
Subject: Re: [Corpora-List] adverbial 'behind'
To: "Jim Fidelholtz" <fidelholtz at gmail.com>
Cc: Corpora at uib.no
Date: Saturday, May 29, 2010, 12:38 PM




  
  
I'd agree with Jim. At the preposition
project web page, the applicable definition would, IMHO, be "controlling or responsible for (an event or plan)". Since
it is common to have a phrase like "I left my daughter behind", the
quote is somewhat poor English and tends to evoke this adverbial sense.
It's something of a garden path sentence. Since "behind" doesn't go
well with "lost", you have to do a double take and then choose the
preposition interpretation.



    Ken



Jim Fidelholtz wrote:
Hi, Marc,
  

  
  My initial reaction to your question was 'what adverb?', ie,
that it is a preposition. With a bit more reflection, I'm a bit more
convinced that it's more of a preposition than an adverb. Cf. 
            They lost their daddy behind the barn. (or even: after
the event, where I would interpret 'after' here as a preposition).
Actually, such examples seem to me to point out the fuzziness of
grammatical categories (*especially* where adverbs are concerned, and
cf. also 'discourse markers', which in their historical development
seem to progress syntactically in many cases towards adverb-like
behavior).
  

  
  Jim

  

  On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 8:48 AM, Marc FRYD <marc.fryd at univ-poitiers.fr>
wrote:

  
    Hi
everyone,

    

In the second episode of "The Wire," one of the characters says the
following:

"[I am] sorry they lost their daddy behind what happened". This is in
reference to some kids losing their father after he was shot.

Is anyone familiar with this particular usage of 'behind'?

    

Best,

Marc

    

 

    
    -- 

    Dr. Marc FRYD
    

Faculté des Lettres et des Langues
    

Université de Poitiers
    

95 avenue du Recteur Pineau
    

86022, Poitiers, France
    

    

Tel. [33](0)5 49 45 48 11
    

Mob. [33](0)6 76 28 18 50
    
    

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-- 

James L. Fidelholtz

Posgrado en Ciencias del Lenguaje

Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades

Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, MÉXICO

  
  
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-- 
Ken Litkowski                     TEL.: 301-482-0237
CL Research                       EMAIL: ken at clres.com
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