Talk:again

September 2008

Waitwaitwait... this entry gives /əˈgeɪn/ as the Received Pronunciation of this word. Well, as far as I know, even in purest RP this pronunciation is very old-fashioned and formal... at least I learnt British English at school and I never was taught to say /@geIn/, except in poetry. Caesarion 02:08, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

YouTube language course at about 6:25 there's an 'again' pronounced so. Otherwise, I think RP often differs from what people normally say. I asked something similar about dance. Since that, I've been to England, I partook a language course, lived with families and I had to realise that no one says /dɑːns/ but /dæns/ apart from our RP speaker native teachers. Ferike333 08:13, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, unless you're in the south-east of England, that is. /dɑːns/ is normal in London but not in Manchester, Birmingham etc. 92.27.214.225 05:22, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

From RFV

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again

Rfv-sense: "Another time; once more."

These seem like two definitions to me, but not to, for example, MWOnline. "Another time" seems neutral about the direction one goes in time from one event to another. "Once more" is not.

I am challenging the time-direction-neutral sense. That is, has it ever been valid to say, in English, something like "It happened on his twelfth birthday and again on this eleventh."? DCDuring TALK 14:16, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Most people would interpret this as two ways of saying the same thing, with no question of direction-neutrality. It looks to me like possibly justification for tightening up the wording, not for a wild-goose chase for usage to back up an interpretation that probably wouldn't have occurred to whoever added the sense. Chuck Entz (talk) 14:34, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

I'm never that confident about older meanings of the word, which might be involved here. The entry was worked on extensively by Widsith, who has a great interest in older usage and specifically reworded one sense to read "(obsolete) Back in the reverse direction, or to an original starting point. (10th-18th c.)", with a usage example: "The South will rise again.", which I have always read as "once more, in the future" rather than "to an original starting point". I am allowing that there might be a good reason for his choices. DCDuring TALK 16:18, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Well the point is not that the South rose once in the past and is going to do so a second time. The point is that the South was once already prominent in the past and is going to rise (for the first time) to reach the same position it had before. Admittedly it's not the clearest example -- I only really stuck that phrase in as a placeholder until some good printed citations were found. Ƿidsiþ 07:48, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Re: "'Another time' seems neutral about the direction one goes in time from one event to another": No, I don't think so. Granted, "another" does have a directionally neutral sense (meaning roughly "a different"; our sense 2), but it also has a forward-specific sense (meaning roughly "an additional", "a subsequent"; our sense 1), and given the rest of the definition, which (as you note) is not ambiguous, it's clear that the latter sense was intended. So, I agree with Chuck Entz. —Ruakh_TALK 08:14, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

On the sense in question, I submit that it's clearly widespread use. I don't think you need to prove that it's "time-direction-neutral" for the glosses given to be accurate. Ƿidsiþ 07:51, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. Withdrawn. DCDuring TALK 11:09, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Subsequent or alternative occasion?

We give what is probably the most common usage as number 4: another time: once more. The examples given clearly refer to the sense of once more; it would appear that another time is meant as 'a subsequent time. However, at least in Hiberno-English, again is often used in the sense of a separate opportunity: one might say "I haven't done it yet, I'll do it again."

The phrase another time as used is ambiguous as to whether it includes this sense: should the Hiberno-English be listed as another language version, as an example under number 4, or as an additional adverbial entry? 81.153.144.108 11:15, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Two issues

1.) The word as such may be inherited from Old English, but surely the modern English /ɡ/ points to influence from Old Norse, doesn't it? And if so, perhaps the sense was also influenced by it?

2.) Is the regional US pronunciation /əˈɡɪn/ just a regular development for those speakers who exhibit the pin-pen merger, or is it more than that, namely a peculiarity of the word "again", in the sense that some people pronounce it /əˈɡɪn/ even though they don't have a general merger of pre-nasal /ɛ/ and /ɪ/? Please clarify. 2.201.0.52 14:33, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

differently

on the other hand
You may be right, but again you may be wrong.
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009

--Backinstadiums (talk) 12:30, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

moreover

similarly and in addition
Again, that is something that the court must take into account.
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009

--Backinstadiums (talk) 12:32, 18 November 2019 (UTC)