Use of "thereby"

[ali45]

Hye everyone ! I just want to ask that do we always have to use verb+ing after "thereby"
I mean like this "thereby-verb+ing"

[bhaisahab]

Hye everyone ! I just want to ask that do we always have to use verb+ing after "thereby"
I mean like this "thereby-verb+ing"

Yes.

[TheParser]

[QUOTE=ali45;837881]


always ???


NOT A TEACHER


(1) I believe it depends on what you wish to say.

(a) In this sentence (from a Web dictionary), it is necessary:

He knocked over the red wine, thereby/thus ruining the cloth.

(b) Sometimes an -ing verb is not used:

She did not know where she had put her lottery ticket. She thereby/thus

lost her chance to win.

(2) I most respectfully suggest that you google the word "thereby" to see how it is

used in different sentences.

(3) As you know, "thereby" is very formal. In modern English, it might be better

to find another way to express the idea.

[BobK]

One common (rather archaic, but often quoted) usage without -ing is 'Thereby hangs a tale' - indicating that there's more to be told (but the speaker isn't going to tell it - unless prompted). 'Hangs' is a strangve collocation with tale, but I've never seen it spelt tail (which would make sense if the 'there' referred to a rump )

b

[5jj]

'Hangs' is a strange collocation with tale, but I've never seen it spelt tail (which would make sense if the 'there' referred to a rump )b

Raymott implied this spelling once:
http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/as...tml#post680190

[birdeen's call]

One common (rather archaic, but often quoted) usage without -ing is 'Thereby hangs a tale' - indicating that there's more to be told (but the speaker isn't going to tell it - unless prompted). 'Hangs' is a strangve collocation with tale, but I've never seen it spelt tail (which would make sense if the 'there' referred to a rump )

There is an explanation of this "hangs" here.

I find it interesting that the meaning of the Polish word for hang/depend bifurcates analogously to both of them. Does anybody know whether this is an accident or there is something to it? Would it be the influence of the Latin word, or just a natural thing to happen?

[bhaisahab]

One common (rather archaic, but often quoted) usage without -ing is 'Thereby hangs a tale' - indicating that there's more to be told (but the speaker isn't going to tell it - unless prompted). 'Hangs' is a strangve collocation with tale, but I've never seen it spelt tail (which would make sense if the 'there' referred to a rump )

b

When I wrote "yes", I knew that I would be proved wrong.

[BobK]

...
I find it interesting that the meaning of the Polish word for hang/depend bifurcates analogously to both of them. Does anybody know whether this is an accident or there is something to it? Would it be the influence of the Latin word, or just a natural thing to happen?

English, as you know, has thousands (if not tens of thousands) of words that have near synonyms based on borrowings from different languages; and often, more relevantly, words that started out as near-synonyms have become clearly distinctive.

Pendere is the Latin word 'to hang'. It was presumably a Vulgar Latin speaker who first referred to what we would now call a dependency by adding the prefix de- to pendere. As a result, Latin - which already had two dependere.verbs (conjugating differently: the 2nd conjugation one meant 'hang down', and 3rd conjugation one meant 'weigh out' [as a cook weighs out ingredients]) - acquired yet another flavour of dependere..

In English that latin word (pendere) appears in several words such as 'pending', 'pendulum' 'pendant' and so on - all involving the concept of 'hanging'; in the case of 'pending', the idea of 'hanging' is fairly obscure; considering the Damocles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia may help you appreciate the link between hanging and things that are impending. (That Damocles image is not essential or particularly relevant; it just struck me as interesting - as 'impending' collocates strongly with 'doom'.)

I suspect Grimm's Law comes into it somewhere. It wouldn't surprise me (though I'm not asserting it ) if 'hang' and pendere had a common ancestor in PIE. Someone with more time than I do might like to explore that possibility...

b

[5jj]

It wouldn't surprise me (though I'm not asserting it ) if 'hang' and pendere had a common ancestor in PIE. Someone with more time than I do might like to explore that possibility...

It seems not (I have to admit that mine was a fairly brief exploration):


'Hang' -
a fusion of O.E. hon "suspend" (transitive, class VII strong verb; past tense heng, pp. hangen), and O.E. hangian (weak, intransitive, past tense hangode) "be suspended;" also probably influenced by O.N. hengja "suspend," and hanga "be suspended." All from P.Gmc. *khang- (cf. O.Fris. hangia, Du. hangen, Ger. hängen), from PIE *kank- "to hang" (cf. Goth. hahan, Hittite gang- "to hang," Skt. sankate "wavers," L. cunctari "to delay;"

Online Etymology Dictionary

from 'pendant' -
pendre "to hang," from L. pendere "to hang," from PIE base *(s)pen(d)- "to pull, stretch". [OED].

Online Etymology Dictionary

[birdeen's call]

Thanks, Bob. I also thought about the she sword of Damocles when I read that article, only my association was with depending. His life depended on whether the sword would fall down. I didn't know that the two dependere were conjugated differently. They were still akin etymologically, right?

I have done some searching and it appears that "hang" is akin to the Latin word "cunctor". A Gothic Etymological Dictionary has this:

*hahan [...] hang, keep in suspense [...] Probably from PIE kenk- waver from 'hang' Skt sankate doubt; Lat cunctor hesitate (probably from *concitor, frequentative of *conco)

PS: OK, I'm slow as usual.