[Ads-l] "too ..." = "so ... as"? -- and not merely "but" should be "and"?

[Dan Goncharoff]

"...not too hard so as to start..."

"...not so hard as to start..."

Both work for me, but I like the latter one better.

DanG

DanG

On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 12:50 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "too ..." = "so ... as"? -- and not merely "but" should be
> "and"?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In a NYTimes article today on the recent exchanges of gunfire between
> Hezbollah and Israeli forces:
>
> /begin quote/
> "It's a very delicate game, because both sides want to respond hard
> enough that they're not perceived as weak, but not too hard to start
> a war," said Benedetta Berti of Israel's Institute for National
> Security Studies.
> /end quote/
>
> If one side retaliates "*not too hard* to start a war", then wouldn't
> a war *not* be started?  I would say "but not so hard as to start a war".
>
> I don't see this as merely "but" improperly replacing
> "and".   Retaliating "and not too hard to start a war" seems to have
> the same  meaning, that a war would *not* be started.
>
> Joel
>
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