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  • Re: Sometimes I forget I was ever a child.

    From HenHanna@21:1/5 to tonbei on Mon Sep 16 22:58:11 2024
    XPost: alt.usage.english

    On Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:38:54 +0000, tonbei wrote:

    I have a question about the following sentences from a novel.

    Sometimes I forget I was ever a child. Ever young and stupid and
    trusting.”
    ("Port Mortuary" by Patricia Cornwell, p258)

    question: about "ever" or its usage in this sentence.
    Could it be said also like: "Sometimes I forget I was once a child." ?



    ever is like pas in French. [in the slightest
    amount]


    so yes, in a sense... that ever is like Once.


    1. Let me know if you need help.
    2. Let me know if you ever need help. --- ever = [in the
    slightest amount]

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  • From HenHanna@21:1/5 to HenHanna on Tue Sep 17 07:04:10 2024
    XPost: alt.usage.english

    On Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:38:54 +0000, tonbei wrote:
    On Mon, 16 Sep 2024 22:58:11 +0000, HenHanna wrote:


    i was going to ask about +0000 ------ Is he posting from the UK
    ?

    but my post has +0000 too


    On Mon, 16 Sep 2024 22:58:11 +0000, HenHanna wrote:

    On Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:38:54 +0000, tonbei wrote:

    I have a question about the following sentences from a novel.

    Sometimes I forget I was ever a child. Ever young and stupid and
    trusting.”
    ("Port Mortuary" by Patricia Cornwell, p258)

    question: about "ever" or its usage in this sentence.
    Could it be said also like: "Sometimes I forget I was once a child." ?



    ever is like pas in French. [in the slightest
    amount]


    so yes, in a sense... that ever is like Once.


    1. Let me know if you need help.
    2. Let me know if you ever need help. --- ever = [in the slightest
    amount]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From tonbei@21:1/5 to All on Tue Sep 17 08:57:54 2024
    XPost: alt.usage.english

    "ever" is an emphatic word, so here it emphasizes the quoted sentence.
    If so, still what I don't know is which part is emphasized "I forget
    sometimes" or "I was a child", or the whole sentence.

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  • From Peter Moylan@21:1/5 to tonbei on Tue Sep 17 20:22:15 2024
    XPost: alt.usage.english

    On 17/09/24 18:57, tonbei wrote:

    "ever" is an emphatic word, so here it emphasizes the quoted
    sentence. If so, still what I don't know is which part is emphasized
    "I forget sometimes" or "I was a child", or the whole sentence.

    Let's restore the original sentences.

    Sometimes I forget I was ever a child. Ever young and stupid and
    trusting.” ("Port Mortuary" by Patricia Cornwell, p258)

    I guess the point has already been made that "ever" has a different
    meaning in the two sentences. In the second sentence "ever" just means "always". That's the simple case.

    In the first sentence the negative-polarity "forget" makes the "ever"
    mean "at any time". (Rather than the "at every time" meaning it would
    have in a positive-polarity sentence.) Switching to a positive form of the statement, we get "sometimes I believe that I was never a child".

    The "never" and "ever" here are absolutes. In either form, the sentence
    is stronger than weaker forms like "I forget that I was once a child"
    which concede that he/she was a child for at least some of the time.

    So I guess the answer to your question is that "ever" emphasizes the
    clause "I was a child".

    --
    Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org
    Newcastle, NSW

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