[Lexicog] Almost

[Ron Moe]

I've been analyzing the domain 'Almost'. Longman's Language Activator gives
the primary meaning of the English word 'almost' as 'almost a particular
number, amount, time, age etc.':

'almost $1000' 'almost full' 'almost an hour' 'almost 50 years old'

If this is true, then the other meanings would be secondary:

someone has almost reached some place: 'almost there'
something has almost reached some state: 'almost dry'
something is almost finished: 'almost done'
someone almost did something: 'almost fell'
something almost happened: 'almost overflowed'
something is almost the best/worst (the most extreme example of some
quality): almost the best
something is so similar that it is almost the same: almost human
something is almost some quality: almost perfectly round

This is a nice example of semantic chaining, and one can readily recognize
the semantic links. However does this concept occur in other, especially
non-Indo-European, languages? Does the concept include the range that the
English word has? Would speakers recognize a semantic link between the
translation equivalents of 'almost' in the examples above?

English has a nice set of words in this domain:

nearly, close to, close on, approaching, nearing, getting on for, not quite,
be pushing, just about, practically, virtually, all but, as good as, to all
intents and purposes, verging on, bordering on, more or less, pretty well,
pretty much

Many of these are secondary meanings of movement verbs or words in the
domain 'Near'. It would appear that in English we conceptualize 'almost' via
the metaphor 'move near' or 'be near'. Is this also true in other languages?
In this case is the primary sense the one in 'to almost reach a place'? At
least it seems that this is conceptually the more salient sense.

Ron Moe



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