http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/more-on-the-case-of-in-case Language in a word Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:04:18 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/more-on-the-case-of-in-case/comment-page-1#comment-17573 Jeremy Wheeler Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:32:14 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=292#comment-17573 I'm surprised to read that British English speakers are unfamiliar with the prepositional 'in case of'. Fowler in 1926 gave 'in case of fire, sound the alarm' (repeated in the Gowers revision of 1965) as an example of good idiomatic usage. I’m surprised to read that British English speakers are unfamiliar with the prepositional ‘in case of’. Fowler in 1926 gave ‘in case of fire, sound the alarm’ (repeated in the Gowers revision of 1965) as an example of good idiomatic usage.

]]> http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/more-on-the-case-of-in-case/comment-page-1#comment-8696 John Cowan Wed, 13 May 2009 22:50:47 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=292#comment-8696 Neal: Correct. It is equivalent to "if and only if", which is sometimes written "iff". Neal: Correct. It is equivalent to “if and only if”, which is sometimes written “iff”.

]]> http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/more-on-the-case-of-in-case/comment-page-1#comment-8147 Neal Whitman Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:46:39 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=292#comment-8147 <I>Just in case</i>, which in ordinary English is just an intensified version of the "lest" meaning, in academic English means "only in the case that". It took me a while to catch on to this, and the explanations where <I>just in case</i> occurred made much more sense once I did. Just in case, which in ordinary English is just an intensified version of the “lest” meaning, in academic English means “only in the case that”. It took me a while to catch on to this, and the explanations where just in case occurred made much more sense once I did.

]]>