"all but" = all of; a mere"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Mar 6, 2008, at 9:32 AM, dInIs wrote:

> Odd that arnold finds this reading of "all but there" days to suggest
> that it was less than expected. For me, the expectation is just the
> opposite; not only that it was three full days but that it should
> have taken less. What are we missing here?
>
>>
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: "all but" = all of; a mere"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> ... Jon's first gloss 'all of' is a construction of interest in
>> itself.
>> as i see things, "It took me all of three days" has a literal reading
>> 'it took me three days, all of them; it took me an entire three-day
>> period'.  but in the right context, *all* of these entirety-denoting
>> expressions can implicate that a longer period might reasonably have
>> been expected, so that three days was notably less than expected --
>> i.e., 'only/just/a mere/but three days'.

i reporting on my judgments of meanings, not offering a description
that would explain why the expressions have the means (i think) they do.

apparently, no one else interprets these things as  i do.  so i
suppose i am simply mistaken, and my judgments should be dismissed.

arnold

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