So far as I knew it

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Marius Hancu - 13 Jul 2009 04:07 GMT

Hello:

Is this an usual/recommended place for "so far as I knew it?"

I mean, the way it is placed in the quotation, it seems to me to have
the capability of referring both to "attempting" and to "describing."

---
[His uncle is losing patience]

I spoke more about Stringham, but Uncle Gilles had come to the end of
his faculty for absorbing statements regarding other people. He began
to tap with his knuckles on the window-pane, continuing his tattoo
until I had given up attempting, so far as I knew it, to describe
Stringham's background.

Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time, p. 18
---

--
Thanks.
Marius Hancu

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Eric Walker - 13 Jul 2009 04:13 GMT

> Is this an usual/recommended place for "so far as I knew it?"
>
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time, p. 18 ---

While one must hesitate to edit Anthony Powell, I imagine that what was
meant was:

"He began to tap with his knuckles on the window-pane, continuing his
tattoo until I had given up attempting to describe, so far as I knew it,
Stringham's background."

I find the placement odd, indeed, but perhaps others will disagree.

Signature

Cordially,
Eric Walker, Owlcroft House
http://owlcroft.com/english/

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Marius Hancu - 13 Jul 2009 12:18 GMT

> > Is this an usual/recommended place for "so far as I knew it?"
>
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> I find the placement odd, indeed, but perhaps others will disagree.

Thanks.
Marius Hancu

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Roland Hutchinson - 13 Jul 2009 14:29 GMT

> > Is this an usual/recommended place for "so far as I knew it?"
> >
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> I find the placement odd, indeed, but perhaps others will disagree.

It seems odd to me, too.

One could also send "as far as I knew it" to the very end of the
sentence. ("...Stringham's background, as far as I knew it.")

Signature

Roland Hutchinson

He calls himself "the Garden State's leading violist da gamba,"
... comparable to being ruler of an exceptionally small duchy.
--Newark (NJ) Star Ledger ( http://tinyurl.com/RolandIsNJ )

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Maria Conlon - 13 Jul 2009 17:19 GMT

> Eric Walker wrote, in reply to Marius Hancu:
>>
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> One could also send "as far as I knew it" to the very end of the
> sentence. ("...Stringham's background, as far as I knew it.")

I stumbled a bit over "so far as I knew it." "As far" seems to fit
better.

I've heard "so far as I [knew/know]," but probably less recently than
"as far...." There's something odd (wrong?) about "so...as" compared to
"as...as" in the sentence.

More: in the passage as given above ("He began to tap....background"),
perhaps "as little" or "as much" preceding "as I knew it" would fit the
circumstances better, but that's just an idle thought based on nothing
much and no context to speak of. And I agree with Roland's suggesed
rearrangement of the sentence.

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Maria Conlon

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Eric Walker - 14 Jul 2009 04:43 GMT

[...]

> I stumbled a bit over "so far as I knew it." "As far" seems to fit
> better.
>
> I've heard "so far as I [knew/know]," but probably less recently than
> "as far...." There's something odd (wrong?) about "so...as" compared to
> "as...as" in the sentence. . . .

The construction jars a bit because it is--at least in American English--
normally reserved for negative castings: "This summer is not nearly so
hot as last." I have read that British English tends to use as...as
throughout. I have also read that the American style in this matter is
now trending toward the British one.

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Cordially,
Eric Walker, Owlcroft House
http://owlcroft.com/english/

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Don Phillipson - 13 Jul 2009 12:39 GMT

> ---
> [His uncle is losing patience]
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time, p. 18

In this sentence "so far as I knew it" (and its placement)
demonstrates Powell's literary style -- which could be described
as Mandarin or post-Jamesian (and nowadays deplored as
pretentious, class-bound, allusive, careless, etc.)

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Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009

So far as I knew it