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Message |
Sin Jeong-hun
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:40 pm
Post subject: The meaning of "For all you know" |
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Hi.
Does "for all you know" mean the same as "you know"? Does his "for"
means "because"?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
For all you know tomorrow
The dream that you wish will come true
Then can I rewrite it like the following without loss of the original
meaning?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
Because, you know, tommorow
The dream that you wish will come true
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:42 pm
Post subject: Re: The meaning of "For all you know" |
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Sin Jeong-hun <typingcat@gmail.com> spake thusly:
| Quote: | Hi.
Does "for all you know" mean the same as "you know"? Does his "for"
means "because"?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
For all you know tomorrow
The dream that you wish will come true
Then can I rewrite it like the following without loss of the original
meaning?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
Because, you know, tommorow
The dream that you wish will come true
|
No, it means "it is possible that" or "it may be that". It's a
standard phrase so you can't analyse the individual words. So the
rewrite could say:
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
It may be that tommorow
The dream that you wish will come true
--
David
=====
replace usenet with the |
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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:46 pm
Post subject: Re: The meaning of "For all you know" |
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Sin Jeong-hun wrote:
| Quote: | Hi.
Does "for all you know" mean the same as "you know"? Does his "for"
means "because"?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
For all you know tomorrow
The dream that you wish will come true
Then can I rewrite it like the following without loss of the
original
meaning?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
Because, you know, tommorow
The dream that you wish will come true
|
No, it doesn't mean that. "For all [person] know[s]" is a tricky
little expression to explain, but it means the person doesn't know
any reason why the thing need not happen. It could be thought of as a
complicated way of saying "it's not impossible that", which, of
course, is a complicated way of saying "it's just possible that"!
--
Mike.
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CDB
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 4:22 am
Post subject: Re: The meaning of "For all you know" |
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"Sin Jeong-hun" <typingcat@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1131554447.114595.21790@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | Hi.
Does "for all you know" mean the same as "you know"? Does his "for"
means "because"?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
For all you know tomorrow
The dream that you wish will come true
|
[...]
The "for all (that)" means something like "in spite of": here, "in
spite of anything you may know to the contrary". Other examples: "for
all her pretensions, she's just like the rest of us"; "his mother
washed him thoroughly, for all his cries of protest"; "a man's a man,
for all that" (in spite of anything that seems to show the contrary).
Now that I think to look, see
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=for+all&r=66 . |
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John Dean
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:55 am
Post subject: Re: The meaning of "For all you know" |
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Mike Lyle wrote:
| Quote: | Sin Jeong-hun wrote:
Hi.
Does "for all you know" mean the same as "you know"? Does his "for"
means "because"?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
For all you know tomorrow
The dream that you wish will come true
Then can I rewrite it like the following without loss of the original
meaning?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
Because, you know, tommorow
The dream that you wish will come true
No, it doesn't mean that. "For all [person] know[s]" is a tricky
little expression to explain, but it means the person doesn't know
any reason why the thing need not happen. It could be thought of as a
complicated way of saying "it's not impossible that", which, of
course, is a complicated way of saying "it's just possible that"!
|
I wonder if it's an eggcorn for the earlier expression "For aught (or
ought) I know"?
--
John Dean
Oxford |
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Pat Durkin
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:01 am
Post subject: Re: The meaning of "For all you know" |
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"Sin Jeong-hun" <typingcat@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1131554447.114595.21790@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | Hi.
Does "for all you know" mean the same as "you know"? Does his "for"
means "because"?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
For all you know tomorrow
The dream that you wish will come true
Then can I rewrite it like the following without loss of the original
meaning?
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
Because, you know, tommorow
The dream that you wish will come true
|
The phrase is used to indicate "maybe, but we can't be sure".
This was a song from '69-70, or thereabouts.
http://www.vex.net/~paulmac/carpenter/lyrics/for_all_we_know.html
Love, look at the two of us
Strangers in many ways
We've got a lifetime to share
So much to say
And as we go
From day to day
I'll feel you close to me
But time alone will tell
Let's take a lifetime to say
"I knew you well"
For only time will tell us so
And love may grow
For all we know.
Love, look at the two of us
Strangers in many ways
Let's take a lifetime to say
"I knew you well"
For only time will tell us so
And love may grow
For all we know.
> |
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Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 4:56 pm
Post subject: Re: The meaning of "For all you know" |
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| Quote: | I wonder if it's ["for all I know"] an eggcorn for the earlier expression "For aught (or ought) I know"?
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For all I know, it could be, but it's noteworthy that "aught" and "all"
seem so opposite as to defy being conflated.
The sense of the newer usage is, of course "for as much knowledge as
I/you have of the matter", implying little or none, so that the matter
in question cannot be said by the speaker to be either possible or
impossible. That may be current fact ("For all I know, he's in
Chicago") or future possibility ("For all you know, you could dead
tomorrow").
--
For all anyone cares. |
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John Dean
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:10 pm
Post subject: Re: The meaning of "For all you know" |
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email@owlcroft.com wrote:
| Quote: | I wonder if it's ["for all I know"] an eggcorn for the earlier
expression "For aught (or ought) I know"?
For all I know, it could be, but it's noteworthy that "aught" and
"all" seem so opposite as to defy being conflated.
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Like desert and dessert. Not that conflation has anything to do with
eggcorns, AFAIK.
But anyway, OED sees "aught" as the opposite of "naught" and ascribes a
meaning to "aught" of "anything at all" so I don't think "aught" and
"all" are that far apart.
--
John Dean
Oxford |
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Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 8:00 am
Post subject: Re: The meaning of "For all you know" |
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Had it not been early morning hours, I'd have recollected that "for
all" is regularly used idiomatically to mean "despite".
.. For all Goliath's size and strength, young David easily overcame him.
.. "A Man's a Man for A' That"
.. For all his riches, he was a wretched man.
I think it unlikely the pattern derives from a mishearing of "for
aught". |
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