[Corpora-List] adverbial 'behind'

[Ken Litkowski]

I'd agree with Jim. At the preposition project web page 
<http://www.clres.com/cgi-bin/onlineTPP/find_prep.cgi>, the applicable 
definition would, IMHO, be "controlling or responsible for (an event or 
plan)". Since it is common to have a phrase like "I left my daughter 
behind", the quote is somewhat poor English and tends to evoke this 
adverbial sense. It's something of a garden path sentence. Since 
"behind" doesn't go well with "lost", you have to do a double take and 
then choose the preposition interpretation.

    Ken

Jim Fidelholtz wrote:
> Hi, Marc,
>
> My initial reaction to your question was 'what adverb?', ie, that it 
> is a preposition. With a bit more reflection, I'm a bit more convinced 
> that it's more of a preposition than an adverb. Cf. 
>           They lost their daddy behind the barn. (or even: after the 
> event, where I would interpret 'after' here as a preposition). 
> Actually, such examples seem to me to point out the fuzziness of 
> grammatical categories (*especially* where adverbs are concerned, and 
> cf. also 'discourse markers', which in their historical development 
> seem to progress syntactically in many cases towards adverb-like 
> behavior).
>
> Jim
>
> On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 8:48 AM, Marc FRYD <marc.fryd at univ-poitiers.fr 
> <mailto:marc.fryd at univ-poitiers.fr>> wrote:
>
>     Hi everyone,
>
>     In the second episode of "The Wire," one of the characters says
>     the following:
>     "[I am] sorry they lost their daddy behind what happened". This is
>     in reference to some kids losing their father after he was shot.
>     Is anyone familiar with this particular usage of 'behind'?
>
>     Best,
>     Marc
>
>      
>     -- 
>     *Dr. Marc FRYD*
>     Faculté des Lettres et des Langues
>     Université de Poitiers
>     95 avenue du Recteur Pineau
>     86022, Poitiers, France
>
>     Tel. [33](0)5 49 45 48 11
>     Mob. [33](0)6 76 28 18 50
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     Corpora mailing list
>     Corpora at uib.no <mailto:Corpora at uib.no>
>     http://mailman.uib.no/listinfo/corpora
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> James L. Fidelholtz
> Posgrado en Ciencias del Lenguaje
> Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades
> Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, MÉXICO
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Corpora mailing list
> Corpora at uib.no
> http://mailman.uib.no/listinfo/corpora
>   

-- 
Ken Litkowski                     TEL.: 301-482-0237
CL Research                       EMAIL: ken at clres.com
9208 Gue Road                     Home Page: http://www.clres.com
Damascus, MD 20872-1025 USA       Blog: http://www.clres.com/blog

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/corpora/attachments/20100529/efb79023/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
Corpora mailing list
Corpora at uib.no
http://mailman.uib.no/listinfo/corpora