main - intensifying adverb?

You have words - now what do you do with them?
WonderingSpaniard
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:23 pm
Location: Alcalá de Henares. Madrid. España

Postby WonderingSpaniard » Fri Jun 17, 2005 5:52 am

She'll be right busy come lambing
I'll be right hungry come supper time.
I had never heard those expressions before... "Come" as a temporal connector!! Are they also very common?

Regards,

WS.
Traduttore, traditore.

tcward
Wordmaster
Posts: 789
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: The Old North State

Postby tcward » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:59 am

WS, that's funny, it's so common I didn't even notice how unusual a role that was for come. :lol:

There's a famous Duke Ellington song, even, called Come Sunday. I tried to find an audio download but couldn't in the time I have now.

Here's a good read on Ellington if you care to read more about this important American composer.

-Tim

WonderingSpaniard
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:23 pm
Location: Alcalá de Henares. Madrid. España

Postby WonderingSpaniard » Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:42 am

Well, it's really a long time since I last was among native English speakers in a so-to-speak natural environment, but it astonishes me (depresses me?) not to have been aware of such expression. :( It does seem quite natural to me and indeed it must be since on both sides of the Atlantic you've offered promptly ready examples of it...

I had never heard of this Duke Ellington, I'll try to give a time to that link. ;-)

Regards,

WS.
Traduttore, traditore.

KatyBr
Wordmaster
Posts: 959
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:28 pm

Postby KatyBr » Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:28 pm

the usage of 'come' up here in the Northern US isn't as common.

Katy

anders
Lexiterian
Posts: 405
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:46 am
Location: Sweden

Postby anders » Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:48 pm

That "come" in "come rain, come shine" is a subjunctive comes natural to me.

In, for example, "come Friday", I wasn't certain how to interpret that "come" grammatically. But my dictionary labels it present subjunctive in those cases as well, and adds "fam."

My grammar, Svartvik, Sager: Engelsk universitetsgrammatik explains "come lunchtime" as "when lunchtime comes", without any mentioning of a subjunctive, under the heading "ellipsis". I prefer that explanation.
Irren ist männlich

Apoclima
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 555
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:00 pm

Postby Apoclima » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:36 pm

Perhaps a "vestigial" subjunctive!

"Come hell or high water" sounds more subjunctive, but I think "Come Thursday," etc. is the same form.

Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck

Flaminius
Lexiterian
Posts: 408
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:36 am

Postby Flaminius » Sat Jun 18, 2005 8:20 am

My dear Spiff, what shape are the monitors on your spacecraft? I only ask as my father used to say that watching too much telly would main make my eyes square.

-- Garzo.
For those who are in incorrigible in habit of watching too much telly a workaround (not really a cure) would be to go to the nearest antique shop and buy a round telly from the 60s and 70s.

Flam

M. Henri Day
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1141
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:24 am
Location: Stockholm, SVERIGE

Postby M. Henri Day » Sat Jun 18, 2005 2:42 pm

... Thus, we have the difference between main angry and mainly angry. ...
Can one (perhaps only dialectally ?) be mainly main angry ?...

Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?

Garzo
Lexiterian
Posts: 137
Joined: Sat Feb 19, 2005 8:22 pm
Location: A place to cross the river Thames with your Oxen
Contact:

Postby Garzo » Sat Jun 18, 2005 7:09 pm

...When the majority of one's anger is intense, but a minority is not as intense, one could be mainly main angry. However, I think anger that is mulled for such time as to deliver itself of such interpretation is likely to have become frustration with age.

-- Garzo.
"Poetry is that which gets lost in translation" — Robert Frost

WonderingSpaniard
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:23 pm
Location: Alcalá de Henares. Madrid. España

Postby WonderingSpaniard » Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:28 am

Perhaps a "vestigial" subjunctive!

"Come hell or high water" sounds more subjunctive, but I think "Come Thursday," etc. is the same form.

Apo
Indeed, it sounds as if a pristine "when" or "if" was missing. Or maybe this is my own Romance-minded interpretation :?

Regards,

WS.
Traduttore, traditore.

M. Henri Day
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1141
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:24 am
Location: Stockholm, SVERIGE

Postby M. Henri Day » Thu Jun 23, 2005 3:48 pm

...
There's a famous Duke Ellington song, even, called Come Sunday....
Ah, Tim, but don't forget Billie Holliday singing Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen's great Come Rain or Come Shine. Now that's blues !...

Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?


Return to “Grammar”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests