[Vocabulary] As

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hooshdar3

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Hi.
How can we understand if "as" is used in the sense of "becase, due to, etc" or just describing the background action?
 
context. Context. CONTEXT.
Almost every day I ask you for context, hooshdar3.
Please provide examples of the problem(s) you are having.
 
We'll get it from context: look at the whole sentence, identify the nouns and the verbs - there you go.
 
Perhaps , He likes too short questions without context...:painting:

Wow! I became a Junior Member .. :cheers:
 
hooshdar3 said:
Hi.
How can we understand if "as" is used in the sense of "becase, due to, etc" or just describing the background action?
Click to expand...
See below the black line.
 
Bennevis said:
We'll get it from context: look at the whole sentence, identify the nouns and the verbs - there you go.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "there you go"?

Context:
"White has a bad bishop as his pawns on the queenside are situated on light-coloured square."

It's from a chess book.

But my question was general.
 
Can you give us one good reason why we should even think about attempting to help you? Time after time you have been asked to provide context, and time after time you have ignored the requests.

As a general question, yours is pointless - no word has any real meaning without context. If the question arose from the chess sentence you finally produced, why on earth did you not provide that at the start?
 
5jj said:
Can you give us one good reason why we should even think about attempting to help you? Time after time you have been asked to provide context, and time after time you have ignored the requests.

As a general question, yours is pointless - no word has any real meaning without context. If the question arose from the chess sentence you finally produced, why on earth did you not provide that at the start?
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So english has no rule to help me understand the meaning of words?
Do I have to post for any sentence I encounter which has this word?
 
Meaning is generated by context. Rules determine things like word order, grammatical form, etc. The rule to follow to decide on the meaning of as is to read the sentence in context and decide which meaning is more likely. There may be some cases where this is not clear, but it is the method to follow. In most cases, it is a fairly simple process, but there are occasions where there is ambiguity. Dictionaries can give you the meaning of individual words, but putting them together and making sense of sentences, paragraphs and texts is a creative task. People will often disagree over the exact meaning of things.

Law is a relevant case- laws are written with tried and trusted phrases and wording whose meanings have been agreed for years, yet there is still plenty of disagreement over interpretation. The only languages that I know of where all meaning can be determined by rules are computer languages.
 
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Tdol said:
Meaning is generated by context. Rules determine things like word order, grammatical form, etc. The rule to follow to decide on the meaning of as is to read the sentence in context and decide which meaning is more likely. There may be some cases where this is not clear, but it is the method to follow. In 99.9% of cases, it is a fairly simple process, but there are occasions where there is ambiguity. Dictionaries can give you the meaning of individual words, but putting them together and making sense of sentences, paragraphs and texts is an individual and creative task. People will often disagree over the exact meaning of things.

Law is a relevant case- laws are written with tried and trusted phrases and wording whose meanings have been agreed for years, yet there is still plenty of disagreement over interpretation. The only languages that I know of where all meaning can be determined by rules are computer languages.
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You mean that I do have to post here for every single as-containing statement?and that you will never exdplain why have you inferred such a meaning?And remember, you still have not answered my original question
 
hooshdar3 said:
Context:
"White has a bad bishop as his pawns on the queenside are situated on light-coloured square."

It's from a chess book.
Click to expand...

Which is more likely?

  1. The person is giving the reason for the bishop being in a bad position.
  2. The person is telling you that the bishop is in a bad position and giving you some contemporaneous background information to make the narrative more gripping.
Remember the wider context- it's from a chess book. Is the chess book trying to teach you how to play chess or to give you an entertaining read?

Now, let's change the context. Let's televise the match. The camera zooms in on a sweaty, worried player looking at their bishop, and the commentator says, "White has a bad bishop as his pawns on the queenside are situated on light-coloured square." Would your answer to the same questions automatically be the same? Is the commentator trying to make us familiar with the situation on the board or explain the players's problem. Or both?

Let's now ask a thousand people the same questions. Would all of them give exactly the same answers to both questions? Would they also all agree on whether the TV commentary and the chess tuition book would use the same words the same way even though the two audiences may be very different? Does it matter that one is written, where the person has time to think and edit, and one is spoken where the person is creating text spontaneously?

Meaning is not always simple. Predicting context and universal meaning of all words is impossible. Always supply context when asking for meaning and don't expect 100% agreement every time.
 
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hooshdar3 said:
And remember, you still have not answered my original question
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JohnParis, Bennevis and I all responded to your original question. The answer was 'Context'.
 
5jj said:
JohnParis, Bennevis and I all responded to your original question. The answer was 'Context'.
Click to expand...

I thought I also suggested that context might help. ;-)
 
Not a teacher
Hi hooshdar(bro)
I think you can be bound to a good dictionary (that provides a lot examples ) to know the general meaning of words.
As has many meanings, it can be used as although , while , when etc
IN your context "White has a bad bishop as his pawns on the queenside are situated on light-coloured square."
It probably means : used to state why a particular situation exists or why someone does something:
As it was getting late, I turned around to start for home.
We asked Philip to come with us, as he knew the road.

See more ... as - Definition from Longman English Dictionary Online

:-o
So it is not possible to give answers without context . May be be given , but it would be a rough guess. Moreover, you probably know the context, but the learners not.
 
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hooshdar3 said:
Hi.
How can we understand if "as" is used in the sense of "becase, due to, etc" or just describing the background action?
Click to expand...

If you can replace the word "as" with the words "because" or "due to", and not change the context , then you may "understand if "as" is used in the sense of "becase, due to, etc."
For example: "White has a bad bishop [STRIKE]as[/STRIKE] because his pawns on the queenside are situated on light-coloured squares." This sentence is correct.

If "as" cannot be replaced by "because" or "due to" then you can "understand that "as" is describing the background action" (whatever that means).
For example: His dog is as affectionate as his cat. His dog is [STRIKE]as[/STRIKE] due to affectionate [STRIKE]as[/STRIKE] because his cat. This sentence is gibberish.

Does this answer your question?

Hooshdar3 - As a personal service, I would very much like to know if my answers assist you and if you understand them. If yes, I would like you to say so, and let me know that the time and effort I have spent has not been wasted. It is customary to do this. If you are going to speak English (even poorly) you should know this cultural element of the language. It is very important in polite written and spoken communication.

John
 
JohnParis said:
If you can replace the word "as" with the words "because" or "due to", and not change the context , then you may "understand if "as" is used in the sense of "becase, due to, etc."
For example: "White has a bad bishop [STRIKE]as[/STRIKE] because his pawns on the queenside are situated on light-coloured squares." This sentence is correct.

If "as" cannot be replaced by "because" or "due to" then you can "understand that "as" is describing the background action" (whatever that means).
For example: His dog is as affectionate as his cat. His dog is [STRIKE]as[/STRIKE] due to affectionate [STRIKE]as[/STRIKE] because his cat. This sentence is gibberish.

Does this answer your question?

Hooshdar3 - As a personal service, I would very much like to know if my answers assist you and if you understand them. If yes, I would like you to say so, and let me know that the time and effort I have spent has not been wasted. It is customary to do this. If you are going to speak English (even poorly) you should know this cultural element of the language. It is very important in polite written and spoken communication.

John
Click to expand...

Of course any teacher's answer is helpful, you including.:)
 
hooshdar3 said:
Hi.
How can we understand if "as" is used in the sense of "becase, due to, etc" or just describing the background action?
Click to expand...


NOT A TEACHER


(1) While I was doing some research on the Web, I came across something that reminded me of your post.

(2) An English expert on the Web, Ms. Jennifer L., suggests these sentences:

As playing cards was his aversion, we did not play bridge.

(a) Ms. L. also suggests these subordinating conjunctions:

Because
Since
In light of the fact that

(b) Ms. L. says that the meaning would be even "clearer" by saying:

Because he was averse to playing cards, we did not play bridge.
Being averse to playing cards, he declined our invitation to play bridge.
 
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