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Adobe CMap and AGLFN data now free softwareAdobe CMap and AGLFN data now free softwarePosted Sep 29, 2009 15:35 UTC (Tue) by nye (guest, #51576)In reply to: Adobe CMap and AGLFN data now free software by Tuxie Parent article: Adobe CMap and AGLFN data now free software
In English, to say that an event is 'moved forward' means that is is being made sooner. Think of it like the event is coming towards you; moving it forward means making it even closer.
Use of the phrase to mean 'delayed' is the direct opposite of what it usually means, and is virtually guaranteed to be misunderstood by almost every native English speaker, unless there is sufficient context to determine for certain that the original speaker used the phase in a non-canonical way.
Just another of those phrases that can't possibly be translated literally :P.
On the other hand, I think 'hence' in this case sounds okay, is probably not technically incorrect, and is unambiguous in this context, though it's not how the word is normally used...
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Adobe CMap and AGLFN data now free software Posted Sep 29, 2009 17:23 UTC (Tue) by Tuxie (guest, #47191) [Link]
I'm sure you're right about the correct usage in English but I still think it's confusing.
When I hear that an event has "moved forward" I think about a calendar where you "forward" a few pages and write down the event there instead. Or when you press "fast forward" on your tape recorder to move forward on the time line. Also, I see "moving an object forward" as pushing it further away in front of me.
This is the way the expression is used in Swedish and I believe it's used like this in many other languages also. Maybe your coworker's native language isn't English?
Adobe CMap and AGLFN data now free software Posted Sep 29, 2009 18:48 UTC (Tue) by njs (subscriber, #40338) [Link]
English, like most languages, has two main metaphors for talking about time. There's one where events are static objects that we move past ("We're almost to Halloween", "We passed the deadline"), and one where we're static and events move past us ("Halloween is almost here", "The deadline went zooming by"). The weird thing about "moved forward" is that it's perfectly ambiguous between these two metaphors -- it could mean we moved the meeting in our direction of travel, i.e. future-ward, or that we moved it further in *its* direction of travel, i.e. past-ward.
If you go up to random English speakers and say "The meeting was on Wednesday, but it got moved forward two days; when is it now?", then
The answers you get also depend on whether people are moving when you ask the question: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/mindbody.pdf
Also, the OED defines "hence" as "From this time onward...(At some time in the future) from now".
NOW YOU KNOW
Adobe CMap and AGLFN data now free software Posted Sep 30, 2009 14:11 UTC (Wed) by nye (guest, #51576) [Link]
What a fascinating paper; thanks for the link. I can't think of any occasions when I've heard the phrase used the other way, but it's making me wonder if I have heard it after all, but completely failed to recognise it.
Adobe CMap and AGLFN data now free software Posted Oct 2, 2009 19:23 UTC (Fri) by branden (guest, #7029) [Link]
Thanks for the OED cite. Despite being a logophile I have not yet elected
to pony up for it in paper or digital form.
I'll be perfectly happy to use the construction "years hither" in the
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