Yeah, whither means "where to". I've never heard of a difference between different kinds of "where to".Dingbats wrote:Is this really how the distinction between "where" and "whither" worked? In the related Swedish, which retains the contrast (at least in the standard), both of those questions would use the equivalent of "whither", since both ask for a direction. "Where" would mean something like "In which place did he walk around without going anywhere?" (but is of course in practice just nothing you would say).TomHChappell wrote:"He went home" originally was a proper answer for "Whither (i.e. which way) did he go?". It was not originally a proper answer for "Where (i.e to what place) did he go?"
The Suppletion Thread
[i]Linguistics will become a science when linguists begin standing on one another's shoulders instead of on one another's toes.[/i]
—Stephen R. Anderson
[i]Málin eru höfuðeinkenni þjóðanna.[/i]
—Séra Tómas Sæmundsson
—Stephen R. Anderson
[i]Málin eru höfuðeinkenni þjóðanna.[/i]
—Séra Tómas Sæmundsson
- Radius Solis
- Smeric
- Posts: 1248
- Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2004 5:40 pm
- Location: Si'ahl
- Contact:
-
- Avisaru
- Posts: 807
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 2:58 pm
AIUI you're saying something like:Echobeats wrote:Yeah, whither means "where to". I've never heard of a difference between different kinds of "where to".Dingbats wrote:Is this really how the distinction between "where" and "whither" worked? In the related Swedish, which retains the contrast (at least in the standard), both of those questions would use the equivalent of "whither", since both ask for a direction. "Where" would mean something like "In which place did he walk around without going anywhere?" (but is of course in practice just nothing you would say).TomHChappell wrote:"He went home" originally was a proper answer for "Whither (i.e. which way) did he go?". It was not originally a proper answer for "Where (i.e to what place) did he go?"
here/there/where was locative/adessive (location);
hither/thither/whither was allative (destination or goal);
hence/thence/whence was ablative (source).
But AIUI English actually used here/there/where for destinations and goals, and used hither/thither/whither for directions.
I could be wrong.
[EDIT]: In which case I should have said "whither" and "whitherward", rather than "where" and "whither". That is, the original "went" was an answer to "whitherward". [/EDIT]
Last edited by TomHChappell on Sat Aug 28, 2010 3:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Radius Solis
- Smeric
- Posts: 1248
- Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2004 5:40 pm
- Location: Si'ahl
- Contact:
- Nortaneous
- Sumerul
- Posts: 4544
- Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2009 1:52 am
- Location: the Imperial Corridor
-
- Avisaru
- Posts: 385
- Joined: Fri Mar 12, 2010 6:30 pm