as such 'therefore'

Damien Hall halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Tue Nov 22 14:17:39 UTC 2005


People have thoroughly covered *as such* meaning 'therefore' on the list, but I
just wanted to add to the mix the fact that I once knew someone for whom that
meaning of *as such* was so ingrained that he seemed able to use it in all
sentence positions, and in particular sentence-finally.  (I noticed that at
least most of the examples from various sources that were quoted yesterday had
it clause-initially, with the 'consequence' following *as such*: eg (synopsis)
'Hustlers often had roommates [...] as such, they would practise their trade
[away from home]'.)

The first time I was really struck by this guy's sentence-final *as such* was in
a situation like the following:

[We had a fairly large group of people and were looking for a place where we
could all fit in to sit down and have a drink;  as it was Friday night, getting
seats for such a large number of people in a city-centre pub wasn't easy.  There
was one pub we hadn't tried:]

'I suppose we could try the Mitre, as such.'

As it appears on the page, this *as such* could seem as if it meant 'as an
example of something previously mentioned', but there was no such referent to
refer back to in the context, so I assume that this must be *as such* =
'therefore'.

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania



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