i. For once in a way there was nothing which Lord Emsworth was trying to
conceal from his sister Constance." -- P. G. Wodehouse.
In a message dated 4/14/2015 10:27:46 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes: "[The opening phrase, 'for once in a way'] is
an
idiomatic expression where "in a way" adds nothing but a kind of flavouring
to "For once...". There are many kinds of such expression in English where
words are added for flavour and emphasis even though their omission would
not alter the substance: "Do it immediately if not sooner", "That applies
to everyone and anyone else". Though closer in sense would be an expression
like "Once upon a time and a time it was..."."
On the other hand, the omission of 'in a way' WOULD alter the substance.
The idea is that there are, shall we say, normal ways, and abnormal ways.
Let me give you an extra example.
ii. It was Christmas Eve, zero at the thermometer. But considering it was
Christmas, there was nothing extraordinary about that. Seasonable weather,
for once in a way."
So we proceed compositionally:
FOR ONCE + IN A WAY
(a) + (b) (as Geary says, "alas, all is algebra")
where we are trying to get at the implicatum of each conjunct:
(a) is easy enough:
"For once". I.e.:
iiia. Compared to *other* past Christmas Eves that had hot weather or rain,
'for this one time' the weather was normal, i.e. cold.
(b) is more of a trick, but still intelligible (As Witters says, "if the
usage exists, the usage means.").
"in a way". I.e.:
iiib. While the weather was not *completely normal*, it was normal 'in some
way' (i.e. it was cold), but in other ways (maybe) it was abnormal (no
snow).
So back to
i. For once in a way there was nothing which Lord Emsworth was trying to
conceal from his sister Constance.
iv. For once, in some UNEXPECTED way, there was nothing which Lord Emsowrth
was trying to conceal fom his sister Constance.
where the expectation applies to Lord Emsworth, and those who knew him well
(as the narrator, P. G. Wodehouse) did.
A Popperian may relate this to CONFIRMATION theory, and reject the
conceptual analysis as 'confirmationist'. The Popperian approach may run along
the
lines that if something happens 'for once' it must by necessity happen in
some "unexpected way", turning "in a way' _otiose_. This would be an
analytic claim, but surely most English expressions don't need to be
_analytic_ in
that way. Cfr.
v. For once, in some EXPECTED way, Lord Emsworth felt he had lost his way.
I.e. when visiting the East End of London, say -- here the 'expected'
applies to both Wodehouse -- he assumes that Lord Emsworth would lose his way
in
the East End -- and Lord Emsworth: even though this was his first time in
the East End, he still EXPECTED to lose his way.
Cheers,
Speranza
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