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Thanks indeed to you all! And point taken about the syntactic status...<br>
Re the 'behind' (preposition!) use in that particular example, is it
standard English usage? I ask, because I am not at all familiar with it
in British English.<br>
I now understand 'behind' to mean something like 'because' (thanks to
JC Khalifa, Linda Bawcome, E.Bashir). <br>
My initial reaction of excitement was frustrated because I thought it
looked like a case of an elusive aspectual perfective periphrasis which
I've only found mentioned once in Visser (1973: 2211) who quoted the
following: "E's behind telling tu Mr. Baker" (1892 Sarah Hewett, <i>Peasant
Speech of Devon</i>, 21). Visser has this meaning the same as the
perfective "after -ing" periphrasis of Irish English. Having lived a
number of years in Devon, I must say that I never had the good fortune
to come across any other occurrence of this particular turn of phrase...<br>
Best,<br>
Marc<br>
<br>
<br>
On 29/05/2010 19:38, Ken Litkowski wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4C0150FD.1050706@clres.com" type="cite">
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<tt>I'd agree with Jim. At the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.clres.com/cgi-bin/onlineTPP/find_prep.cgi">preposition
project
web page</a>, the applicable definition would, IMHO, be "<span
class="def">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.<br>
<br>
Ken<br>
</span></tt><br>
Jim Fidelholtz wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTikGZolOjtcvu0R8DFaLTJ2eupSyuDQKfwnixF5P@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">Hi, Marc,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>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. </div>
<div> 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).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Jim<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 8:48 AM, Marc FRYD
<span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:marc.fryd@univ-poitiers.fr">marc.fryd@univ-poitiers.fr</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font size="-1"><big><big>Hi
everyone,<br>
<br>
In the second episode of "The Wire," one of the characters says the
following:<br>
"[I am] sorry they lost their daddy behind what happened". This is in
reference to some kids losing their father after he was shot.<br>
Is anyone familiar with this particular usage of 'behind'?<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Marc<br>
<br>
</big></big><br>
</font>
<div>-- <br>
<b>Dr. Marc FRYD</b> <br>
Faculté des Lettres et des Langues <br>
Université de Poitiers <br>
95 avenue du Recteur Pineau <br>
86022, Poitiers, France <br>
<br>
Tel. [33](0)5 49 45 48 11 <br>
Mob. [33](0)6 76 28 18 50</div>
</div>
<br>
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</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
James L. Fidelholtz<br>
Posgrado en Ciencias del Lenguaje<br>
Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades<br>
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, MÉXICO<br>
</div>
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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ken Litkowski TEL.: 301-482-0237
CL Research EMAIL: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ken@clres.com">ken@clres.com</a>
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class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.clres.com">http://www.clres.com</a>
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<b>Dr. Marc FRYD</b>
<br>
Faculté des Lettres et des Langues
<br>
Université de Poitiers
<br>
95 avenue du Recteur Pineau
<br>
86022, Poitiers, France
<br>
<br>
Tel. [33](0)5 49 45 48 11
<br>
Mob. [33](0)6 76 28 18 50</div>
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