fredag 5. juni 2009
When/whenever.
Ok, so my first blog, not surprisingly, deals with a linguistic phenomenon. As my friends know, I am an avid viewer of television :P, and many of the programs I watch are in american English. I have noticed several times lately that some Americans seem not to distinguish between the word "when" and the word "whenever". This morning I was watching Animal Planet. It was about a dog that had suffered gross neglect and was in a poor state when they found her. She was given treatment and fostered by a kind man who, nevertheless, does not seem to master the distinction "when/whenever". This is what he said about the dog in question: "She looks a hundred percent better than she did whenever I first got her". Maybe I wouldn't have thought much of it if I hadn't heard this mistake many, many times before. Or is it a mistake? Has anybody else noticed this? To what would you attribute this phenomenon? And, how would you describe the semantic distinction (the distinction in meaning) between "when" and "whenever"?
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I would say "when" is determinate, since it points to a specific moment, while "whenever" is indeterminate. Although I don't know if those are the correct semantic terms in English...
SvarSlettForresten, litt natig det der at man må logge inn med profil for å kommentere...
SvarSlettJa, det var natig! Men du kan visst blokkere den, for jeg kommer ikke inn på noe når jeg klikker på navnet ditt.
SvarSlettI think that the descriptions "determinate" and "indeterminate" seem to capture the difference between the two words, at least for the example in question. However, I wonder if "when" couldn't also be used "indeterminately" in certain contexts. How about:
SvarSlett"I don't know when my husband is coming home, but WHEN he does, I'll be very happy." I would say that "when" could be described as indeterminate in this context. Had I said "whenever", I feel like I would have presupposed a habit of some kind, something repetative.