Timeline for Very confusing sentence: "out back stacking wood"
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 28, 2021 at 16:13 | answer | added | James K | timeline score: 2 | |
| Dec 28, 2021 at 13:37 | comment | added | Jack O'Flaherty | out back is so common in (US?) English that Wiktionary lists it as an adverb: "(US) Outside at the back., e.g., My car is parked out back." (Saying back out stacking wood seems very unlikely to me.) | |
| Dec 28, 2021 at 13:11 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @PeterJennings: If I wanted to convey that "resumed doing something" sense (through the word back), I'd put that instance of the preposition before the "locational" one out. It wouldn't bother me to repeat back again as an additional locational preposition, but I could certainly see the second instance as "optional": I thought he was back out [back] stacking wood. | |
| Dec 28, 2021 at 13:09 | history | edited | stangdon | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
more informative title
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| Dec 28, 2021 at 12:57 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | The 'back again' sense doesn't really fit with out preceding it. She might say "I thought he was back out there stacking wood". | |
| Dec 28, 2021 at 12:33 | comment | added | Peter Jennings | @FumbleFingers I agree that the most likely interpretation of the sentence is 2, but it does depend on context, what has gone before. It's possible that "my old man" had been stacking wood, then had to stop to do something else and was now "back" = "returned to" doing it. | |
| Dec 28, 2021 at 12:32 | comment | added | Eullera Valiente | @FumbleFingers, isn't the preposition "in" also needed? like "In the back" another point is: don't you think omitting things like that gives the reader the possibilit of second interpretations? like the one I gave back(again)? | |
| Dec 28, 2021 at 12:15 | comment | added | Andrew | You get it right. Out means outside, not in the house, back - in the backyard, behind the house... Another meaning would be possible if back-stacking were a thing :) | |
| Dec 28, 2021 at 12:07 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | It's a fairly common feature of relaxed conversational English that we sometimes omit the verb subject from the initial position in an utterance. The most well-known example being the "imperative", as in Go away! (omitted subject You). It also occurs with non-imperative Didn't expect that, did you? (again, implied subject You missing from initial position). In your examples, the implied but missing subject is obviously I (first person singular). With missing definite article ...out the back. | |
| Dec 28, 2021 at 11:43 | history | asked | Eullera Valiente | CC BY-SA 4.0 |