2 From SKB:
1.
My
point was not about the frequency of ‘midst’ amongst [sic] different
breeds of English. After 30+ years conversing/writing/reading in both
the UK and USA, I’ve found ‘midst’ evenly distributed, usually as a
near-synonym for ‘middle/during’ and with the same spread of idiomatic
nuances. Compare this with ‘whilst/amongst,’ which, to my ears, seem
to have more of a British than American flavour. In spite of which, the
synonyms ‘while/among’ are emerging as both the British and American
‘norms.’
Not that anyone can count such frequencies (subject to volatile
fashion) with any accuracy. Certainly, one should not form dogmatic
Literary opinions about speakers’ origins and intentions from vague
opinions: so-and-so is not all that unusual! I hear Pinter
saying, ‘I just said “Not at all unusual.” Not “Not all THAT unusual!”’
My point concerned CK’s particular use of ‘midst,’ unusual in both Brit
and American English: migraine causes him to ‘leave in the midst of
a concert.’ EH’s
example of ‘in the midst of problems’ does, in fact, illustrate where
the difference lies. As I noted, there’s a subtle cause-effect reversal
from the expected ‘leaving a concert in the midst of a migraine.’
My spinal tap is increased by Jansy’s discovery of CK quitting the
nasty publisher ‘in the midst of a SUNSET.’ I find this
sublimely unexpected and Nabokovian beyond rational analysis.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
------------------------
2
On 31/07/2012 02:55, "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@ATT.NET> wrote:
This
reminds me of the time some American hair-products company got into
trouble when they tried to market a steam generated curling iron to the
German public under the name of Mist Wand!
Rolls-Royce encountered this problem at a
more expensive level: a model called the SILVER MIST. Quickly renamed.
SKB