Positive _(al)though_

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 16, 2011, at 3:57 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> Have other people come across this phenomenon? Oddly, I don't think
> that I've ever heard a spoken example of this. But it's become
> annoyingly common in print. Here's an example from SI July 18, 2011,
> p.58a:
>
> "_Though_ the lightning had probably struck _within 50 yards_ of them,
> [nevertheless,] electricity buckled their legs..."
>
>
> Say what, now?
> —
My guess is that “(al)though” remains as adversative as ever here, the real weirdness is “struck within 50 yards of them”, which would have been more perspicuously expressed as “struck as far away as 50 yards of them” or even just “struck 50 yards away” simpliciter.

LH

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