query on usage (a not quite clear result)

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:18 PM -0400 5/22/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>What is the question?  Usage in 1815?  Usage today?
>
>Joel

Sorry for the unclarity.  The question is usage today.  Is "pretty X
but not quite X" something you could say?  Is there a regional
variation (possibly U.S. vs. U.K. English) on this?  Basically, I'm
wondering whether there's been a shift over the last 200 years
affecting "not quite" as opposed to "not wholly/completely/totally".

LH

>
>At 5/22/2009 11:24 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>I was struck by this line in Jane Austen's _Emma_ (1815):  "pretty
>>well but not quite well".  The larger context is:
>>
>>"Oh! good Mr. Perry- how is he, sir?"
>>"Why, pretty well; but not quite well. Poor Perry is bilious, and he
>>has not time to take care of himself."
>>
>>For my intuitions of what is natural in contemporary U.S. English,
>>this is not a possible utterance, given what "pretty X" and "not
>>quite X" convey.  If "quite" really just meant 'wholly, completely'
>>even in negative contexts (as the OED entry suggests), this should be
>>possible, as indeed are
>>
>>"He's pretty well, but not completely/totally well"
>>
>>For me these are impeccable, with natural stress falling on
>>"completely/totally"--but such stress on "quite" doesn't help for me
>>with "pretty well but not quite well", and indeed stressing "quite"
>>in a sequence of "not quite [Adjective]" often seems  Is my judgment
>>here  idiosyncratic?  A google search of this sequence, not
>>surprisingly, pulls up many hits for the line from Emma and various
>>irrelevant ones like "pretty well, but not quite well enough", which
>>is fine for me.  I'm not sure this is conclusive, though, since there
>>are no hits at all for the "completely" or "totally" counterparts
>>above, which as noted I find impeccable.
>>
>>Of course YMMV, but that's why I'm posting.
>>
>>LH
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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