[Ads-l] Facebook and "via"

Sat Aug 1 19:33:16 UTC 2015

I think the interpretation that he's on the national stage, having come from Brooklyn via Vermont, is reasonable here. BB

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 1, 2015, at 12:10, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Facebook and "via"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>> On Aug 1, 2015, at 12:19 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
>> =20
>> For me, an additional problem with Bernie Sanders "from Brooklyn via =
> Vermont" is that I think of "via" as connoting "a step in transit" -- =
> that is, Sanders originated in Brooklyn, and went via Vermont to =
> somewhere else.  But Sanders is still in (or "of", as a Senator) =
> Vermont.
>> =20
>> Joel
> 
> True, maybe I'd have opted for "by way of" rather than "via" here.  But =
> the original doesn't strike me as that odd--maybe he's considered to be =
> in Washington now, as you suggest, so Vermont is indeed a way-station en =
> route from Brooklyn to D.C.  Doesn't help that the OED gloss for "via" =
> is=20
> 
> By way of; by the route which passes through or over (a specified place)
> 
> None of the cites involve the locution "(X is) from Y via Z", so no help =
> there.  But clearly if I were to go to Brooklyn via Vermont, it's =
> Vermont that would be a way-station en route to Brooklyn, not vice =
> versa.  Maybe it would be different if I used Facebook.
> 
> LH
> 
> 
> 
>> =20
>>     From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=20
>> Sent: Saturday, August 1, 2015 12:01 PM
>> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Facebook
>> =20
>>> On Aug 1, 2015, at 11:40 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> =20
>>> On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 11:02 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>> =20
>>>>> On Aug 1, 2015, at 1:00 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>>> =20
>>>>> "[Bernie Sanders,] a 73-year-old Jew _from Brooklyn via Vermont_ =
> ..."
>>>>> =20
>>>>> Shouldn't that be
>>>>> =20
>>>>> "... a 73-year-old Jew _from Vermont via Brooklyn_ ..."?
>>>>> =20
>>>>> Or have I, once again, fallen behind the curve of language-change?
>>>> =20
>>>> Ah, another reversal?  Actually, I think I'd go for _from Brooklyn =
> via
>>>> Vermont_.  For me the "via" is 'by way of', so I'd take someone who =
> told
>>>> me he was from Vermont via Brooklyn as saying he started out in =
> Vermont
>>>> and spent some time in Brooklyn (probably Williamsburg, the most
>>>> Vermonty neighborhood of Brooklyn) before getting here.  Someone =
> from
>>>> Vermont via Brooklyn would talk the way someone from Brooklyn (via
>>>> anywhere) like Bernie does.  Haven't checked OED to see what sort of
>>>> glosses and cites they show, this is just my own intuition.  Has =
> there
>>>> been a change of the "substitute" kind here?
>>> =20
>>> Facebook may be contributing to confusion over the direction of =
> "via,"
>>> as noted by Barbara Need back in 2010.
>> =20
>> Aha!  That explains it.  Wilson is on Facebook, so he's adopted the =
> innovative form.  I'm not, so I haven't.  Finally I get to be an older =
> fogey than Wilson!
>> =20
>> LH
>> =20
>>> Thread starts here:
>>> =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__listserv.linguistlis=
> t.org_pipermail_ads-2Dl_2010-2DFebruary_096519.html&d=3DAwIBaQ&c=3D-dg2m7z=
> WuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3D5FxhOm=
> LeQa1Kzo7c5j_t3oI_vLoWaa4HgnwnAF9rCzM&s=3Dp0aWZSghkeDMiSesr0KcAMUf3qjCdU93=
> ckL_RQyjOfo&e=3D=20
>>> =20
>>> Barbara: "I am getting FB updates labeled X via Y where  message is
>>> posted by X who got it from Y.  (So if a link is put up marked John
>>> via Mary then John is a person you know and is the immediate source =
> of
>>> the link; you may or may not know Mary and she is John's source). I
>>> can't get that and the OED definition does not seem to work either. I
>>> would have to say either John from Mary or Mary via John."
>>> =20
>>> Victor S: "It's not obvious from FB PR, but this is a recent =
> addition.
>>> This only happens when X clicks on 'share this' on something that has
>>> been posted by Y. Normally, I would have expected [From] Y * via X,
>>> but the full FB syntax appears to be X [got this] * via Y. If you
>>> interpret it this way, there is nothing new to 'via'. I've been using
>>> it on FB for a long time, e.g., when posting the original links I got
>>> from other people or from blogs. But the new part is the FB now does
>>> this automatically when you click on 'Share this' link."
>>> =20
>>> Barbara: "Except that you have to intuit [got this]--and I don't. I
>>> intuit [sent this]."
>>> =20
>>> --bgz
>>> =20
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>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
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