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"?

4 kommentarer:

  1. 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...

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  2. Forresten, litt natig det der at man må logge inn med profil for å kommentere...

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  3. Ja, det var natig! Men du kan visst blokkere den, for jeg kommer ikke inn på noe når jeg klikker på navnet ditt.

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  4. I 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:
    "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.

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