as such 'therefore'

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Nov 22, 2005, at 6:17 AM, Damien Hall wrote:

> 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'.

or the emphatic "as such" discussed by MWDEU, which is usually
characterized as "wordy", and sometimes as "pretentious", as in:
   Copperud, Gowers, Sherman, Steinmann & Keller

not in Fowler, but Burchfield's rev. of Fowler has an entry for it,
but as presenting an ambiguity problem

the following usage dictionaries don't mention "as such" at all":
   Bryant, any of the four Bernsteins i have, Collins/Cobuild,
Horwill, Mager & Mager, Morris & Morris, Peters (Cambridge Guide),
Strumpf, Strunk & White, Swan, Trask

not in Follett, but Wensberg's rev. of Follett has it, and mentions
both emphatic and consequential "as if"

Garner (GMAU) has it, and also consequential "as if", and gives an
account of the latter's development via a misreading of other uses of
"as such"

i haven't checked through all the complaint literature, but neither
Cochrane nor Fiske's Disagreeable Dictionary have entries for "as if"

arnold