8.0123 R: British English (1/27)
Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 28 Jul 1994 22:10:44 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 8, No. 0123. Thursday, 28 Jul 1994.
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 10:30:35 -0400
From: tgb2@po.CWRU.Edu (Thomas G. Bishop)
Subject: Re: 8.0117 R: British (?) English (1/42)
>
>-- and what really bothers me is that the original question, "how long
>will the train be?" was attributed to an English (ie British) woman.
>Are you sure she was a British-English speaker and not an Indian-English
>speaker? I would have said: "how long will the train take?" or "how
>long does the trip take?"
>
>Judy Koren, Haifa, Israel.
>
>
Indeed, I am quite sure that the speaker was an Englishwoman as she had one
of the relevant accents. On the other hand, I am by no means sure that the
question she was asking ("How long will the train be from Vellore?") wasn't
actually the question: "How long will I have to wait for the train from
Vellore?" i.e. How many minutes from now is it due to arrive? In either
case, as I recall, she didnt indicate particular satisfaction with the
clerk's answer.
Tom Bishop
--
Tom Bishop "Look, here comes a walking fire!"
Dept of English
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH 44106.(tgb2@po.cwru.edu)