whenever

[Dennis R. Preston]

Joan,

HAH! Just like I said, you can't say......

Thanks for this South Midlands evidence which is contrary to my own South
Midlands intuitions.

Like somebody said, must be generational. How could a youngster like me......


dInIs

>DARE's evidence shows the use of "whenever" in contexts such as the
>following to be common in the South and South Midland:
>
>Whenever his Daddy died, he took over the farm.
>
>That must have been whenever Jerry was a baby.
>
>Whenever I was a gal, folks kep' ther' clo'es on, an' th' men-folks allus
>wore th' britches.
>
>Whenever we was there last night, I asked him.
>
>He gave me a good supper last night when ever I came within his doors.
>
>
>
>At 08:38 AM 10/7/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>>Ron,
>>
>>Of course you can't say "Whenever I was a little boy..." (at last not in
>>the straightforward reading; if there was a time when you chose to be a
>>little boy [e.g., act like one], this reading is possible).
>>
>>This means that the accused are not substituting "whenever" for "when," but
>>that others have conflated an aspectual distinction made by the two forms.
>>
>>"when" = at/during a bounded time
>>        When Mary arrrived.... (she arrived at a certain time)
>>        When I was a child.... (at any time during this time period)
>>
>>"whenever" = at/during "alternative" times
>>        Whenever Mary arrived (she arrived more than once or at an
>unspecified
>>                time)
>>
>>In fact, one could argue that "when" conflates "when" and "while," the
>>latter being more appropriate for the "When I was a child....." since
>>durativity rather than punctuality is at work.
>>
>>Since other features (verb marking, context, etc...) also mark these
>>aspectual distinctions, it is clear why we can dump them all into "when."
>>Varieties with "whenever and "while" simply keep more distinctions on the
>>adverb clasue marker.
>>
>>Of course, I don't have a clue about the regional/social distribution of
>>these matters.
>>
>>dInIs
>>
>>>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"?
>>
>>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
>>

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