whenever

[Dennis R. Preston]

Larry,

Unless you belive that the semntic niche filled by "anytime" (not "any
time") is a principled reason.

Note:

He goes there anytime he likes.

He goes there at any time he likes.

He goes anywhere he likes.

He goes to any place he likes.

He goes anyplace he likes.

This, of course, shoots my argument in the foot since speakers seem to put
up with "anywhere" and "anyplace," but maybe only in "different grammars."

dInIs (who shot his own argument in the course of writing the message!)



 >Ron Butters writes:
>>In a message dated 10/6/1999 5:35:49 PM, ronnieg at STARGATE.NET writes:
>>
>><< "Whenever" is used as "when" in the south, but more so by the older
>>
>>generation, I believe.  Children do hear this usage from their grandparents
>>
>>and 'learn' repeat it that way until someone tells them differently. >>
>>
>>EVERWHEN is an alternative form of WHENEVER (e.g., "You can come to my house
>>everwhen you want"); I'm a little less sure about WHENEVER for WHEN, though.
>>Could you give us an example? Would one of the old folks say, e.g., "Whenever
>>I was I little boy, we didn't have indoor plumbing"?
>
>Can you get 'anywhen' in the pretty much the same contexts and the same
>regional distribution as 'everwhen'?  It's listed in some regular and
>dialect dictionaries, but I don't have a strong handle on its use.  Of
>course there's no principled reason why we should have 'anywhere' but not
>'anywhen' in the majority dialect.
>
>Larry

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736