Sentence-initial "As well"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not unfamiliar to me, though the reported density is unusual.  I associate
the usage with TV talkers, though I wouldn't call it endemic - yet.

I can even remember a time before "out of" was the preferred term for "in"
or "from" (a geographical place).  (German "aus" doesn't count: that's
German.)

Long ago I mentioned the upper-division student (ca2002) who began many
sentences with "As such," meaning "Therefore" or even "So."

All part of life's rich pageant.

JL



On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 8:20 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Sentence-initial "As well"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have just read a student essay in which about 10% of the sentences begin
> with "As well [comma]"--instead of "Moreover" or "Furthermore" or "What is
> more" or "Also."  Our students (evidently) have been taught to stick in lots
> of "transitions," but sentence-initial "As well" strikes me as abnormal.  As
> well, the essay didn't have much content.
>
> --Charlie
>
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