Re: Time in various languages...

Neeraj Mathur wrote:
>
> "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:43CB989C.75D5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Richard Herring wrote:
> >
> >> One can probably rigidly define this one: no monoglot native speaker of
> >> British English would ever use "half ten" to mean anything but 10:30.
> >
> > And no monoglot native speaker of American English would ever use "half
> > ten," but if they heard it they would naturally interpret it as "halfway
> > to ten."
> >
> > Perhaps as in "We're halfway there."
>
> Speak for yourself. When I came here and heard 'half ten', I assumed that
> the usage was a shortening of 'half past ten'. I accepted that this was one
> of the quirks of the language here, along with 'maths', 'pants', and plural
> verbs with collective nouns. 'Halfway to ten' is meaningless to me - as
> likely to mean five as anything else - and it never occurred to me that a
> similar construction could mean 9:30 until my German friend pointed it out.
> For this American English speaker, 'half ten' meaning 9:30 is completely

You're a Canadian English-speaker, meaning you've had rather more
exposure to British usage than we have.

> unintuitive, while 'half ten' meaning 10:30 is completely sensible. The
> logic is the same as that whereby I'm more likely to buy something priced
> $9.99 than $10.00.
>
> Your 'natural interpretation' is certainly not extensible to American
> English speakers in general. Perhaps mine isn't either, since you claim a
> different experience. (Perhaps you've been influenced by Yiddish speakers in
> New York?)

No, they're very insular.

> Perhaps American English speakers, and American English-speaking
> linguists, when they travel, should expect that languages will work in
> different ways and check what an unfamiliar local construction means, rather

Indeed, whenever an English acquaintance who comes to visit says it, I
have to ask.

> than inventing their own meaning (as your hypothetical American English
> monoglot would) and hubristically informing the natives that they are
> completely unreasonable.

And The Other John Lawler (the one who posts as Sean) should have done
the same.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@xxxxxxx
.

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