<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<TITLE>メッセージ</TITLE>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1458" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><SPAN class=358290300-06082004><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff
size=2>In Japanese, there are three concepts for this. One is adverbial such as
almost dry (hotondo), another for the adjective such as almost $1000 (ni
chikai, gurai), and then one for "almost happened but didn't" (tokoro, sou,
etc.) I think you could make an argument to collapse the adverb and adjective
classifications; you might even catch a native Japanese speaker using the wrong
one in a performance error. These are in the near category (chikai means
near). I can't think of any word that covers both of them at the
moment,though.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=358290300-06082004><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=358290300-06082004><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff
size=2>The almost but didn't seems clearly different, though there are some
cases that might cross such as "almost full" and "almost done".
</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=358290300-06082004><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=358290300-06082004><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff
size=2>Benjamin Barrett</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=358290300-06082004><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff
size=2>Baking the World a Better Place</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=358290300-06082004><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff
size=2><A href="http://www.hiroki.us">www.hiroki.us</A></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=ja dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Ron Moe
[mailto:ron_moe@sil.org] <BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, August 05, 2004 5:01
PM<BR><B>To:</B> lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> [Lexicog]
Almost<BR><BR></FONT></DIV><TT>I've been analyzing the domain 'Almost'.
Longman's Language Activator gives<BR>the primary meaning of the English word
'almost' as 'almost a particular<BR>number, amount, time, age
etc.':<BR><BR>'almost $1000' 'almost full' 'almost an hour' 'almost 50 years
old'<BR><BR>If this is true, then the other meanings would be
secondary:<BR><BR>someone has almost reached some place: 'almost
there'<BR>something has almost reached some state: 'almost dry'<BR>something
is almost finished: 'almost done'<BR>someone almost did something: 'almost
fell'<BR>something almost happened: 'almost overflowed'<BR>something is almost
the best/worst (the most extreme example of some<BR>quality): almost the
best<BR>something is so similar that it is almost the same: almost
human<BR>something is almost some quality: almost perfectly round<BR><BR>This
is a nice example of semantic chaining, and one can readily recognize<BR>the
semantic links. However does this concept occur in other,
especially<BR>non-Indo-European, languages? Does the concept include the range
that the<BR>English word has? Would speakers recognize a semantic link between
the<BR>translation equivalents of 'almost' in the examples
above?<BR><BR>English has a nice set of words in this domain:<BR><BR>nearly,
close to, close on, approaching, nearing, getting on for, not quite,<BR>be
pushing, just about, practically, virtually, all but, as good as, to
all<BR>intents and purposes, verging on, bordering on, more or less, pretty
well,<BR>pretty much<BR><BR>Many of these are secondary meanings of movement
verbs or words in the<BR>domain 'Near'. It would appear that in English we
conceptualize 'almost' via<BR>the metaphor 'move near' or 'be near'. Is this
also true in other languages?<BR>In this case is the primary sense the one in
'to almost reach a place'? At<BR>least it seems that this is conceptually the
more salient sense.<BR><BR>Ron Moe<BR><BR></TT><BR>
<br>
<!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| -->
<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2>
<tr bgcolor=#FFFFCC>
<td align=center><font size="-1" color=#003399><b>Yahoo! Groups Sponsor</b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor=#FFFFFF>
<td align=center width=470><table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0> <tr> <td align=center><font face=arial size=-2>ADVERTISEMENT</font><br><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=129v6q7t6/M=295196.4901138.6071305.3001176/D=groups/S=1709195911:HM/EXP=1091838277/A=2128215/R=0/SIG=10se96mf6/*http://companion.yahoo.com" alt=""><img src="http://us.a1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/a/ya/yahoo_companion/lrec_companion_043004.gif" alt="click here" width="300" height="250" border="0"></a></td></tr></table> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td><img alt="" width=1 height=1 src="http://us.adserver.yahoo.com/l?M=295196.4901138.6071305.3001176/D=groups/S=:HM/A=2128215/rand=201330602"></td></tr>
</table>
<!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| -->
<!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| -->
<br>
<tt><hr width="500">
<b>Yahoo! Groups Links</b><br>
<ul>
<li>To visit your group on the web, go to:<br><a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/</a><br>
<li>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:<br><a href="mailto:lexicographylist-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe">lexicographylist-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com</a><br>
<li>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the <a href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/">Yahoo! Terms of Service</a>.
</ul>
</tt>
</br>
<!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| -->
</BODY></HTML>