Re: Time in various languages...

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 02:57:33 -0000, Neeraj Mathur
<neemathur@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:dqcdmp$coh$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:

> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1vkfa80lndzhv$.ag2yd6b0dak4$.dlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

>> On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 02:35:42 -0000, Neeraj Mathur
>> <neemathur@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>> <news:dqccdq$cct$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:

>>> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>> news:1nyg56iccd80l$.1kvafxls58u4q.dlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

>>>> On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 13:32:00 +0000, Thomas Widmann
>>>> <twid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>>>> <news:m3fynr2awf.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:

>>>>> Does it mean 9:30 in any variety of English?

>>>> I don't believe so. Unfortunately. 'Halb zehn' = 9:30
>>>> makes sense; the English usage is thoroughly unreasonable.

>>> Not at all! When half of the ten o'clock hour has gone
>>> past, it is half ten - 10.30.

>> That makes no sense to me, because I don't consider 'the ten
>> o'clock hour' a natural entity.

> You're thinking of 10:00 as the end of the tenth hour, but
> this is highly unnatural -

Not to me! Nor is it necessary to think this way to get
9:30 out of 'half 10': 'half 10' immediately suggests 'half
of 10', which is readily understood in this context as
elliptical for 'half of the way to 10 (from the previous
whole hour)'.

[...]

> That's why 'half 10' meaning 'halfway through all those
> times that start with 10' is rather the opposite of
> 'thoroughly unreasonable'.

Not to me! Seriously, 'half of the way to 10' has *always*
seemed to me the obvious interpretation of 'half 10', and I
really do find the English usage unnatural.

Brian
.

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