Is there a real difference with 'for'?

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clarence

#111184 Tue, 21 Jun 05 11:52 AM

In the following sentence, I wonder if there is a real difference if we take out 'for' in "for a little bit"? Thanks.:

Hearing this, I felt sorry for the blind man for a little bit.

clarence

Joined on Mon, Feb 28 2005

Junior Member (74)

Mister Micawber

#111191 Tue, 21 Jun 05 12:10 PM

Then it would potentially change meaning, I think. 'For a little bit' means for a short length of time. In 'I felt sorry for the blind man a little bit' it could mean either for a short time or to a small extent. To clarify the small extent, I could move it to the attributive position: 'I felt a little bit sorry for the blind man'; but I cannot clarify the durational meaning without the 'for'.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,619)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

clarence

#111445 Wed, 22 Jun 05 12:04 PM

To clarify, can we conclude that:

- 'for a little bit' means 'for a short length of time' in the original sentence

- 'a little bit' definitely means 'to a small extent' in 'I felt a little bit sorry for the blind man'

I'm not sure of the term 'attributive position'. Does it refer to the position before the noun phrase 'the blind man'?

Incidentally, I wonder if it is common among native speakers to use 'a bit' to mean 'a short time'? I ask this because as a non-native speaker, I've always only known and used 'a bit' to mean 'a little', but never 'a short time'. To express a short time, I would, for instance, say "Wait a while".

In fact, if I use 'a bit' to express 'a short time' to my non-native friends, it may cause some misunderstanding, I think. For instance:

A: "Did you wait long?"
B: "A bit."

A may take B to mean 'a little (long)', but B may be expressing 'a short time'.

clarence

Nouns, Noun Phrases

Mister Micawber

#111477 Wed, 22 Jun 05 02:32 PM

Yes, I agree with your two conclusions, Clarence. The 'for' in fact demands that the phrase be taken as a time unit, I think. (And 'attributive' does mean that it comes before the word it modifies, in contradistinction to 'predicative'.)

I agree also that your dialogue, being terse, is a bit ambiguous, and could be taken either way by speaker A. Nevertheless, 'a bit' as a measure of time is quite common:

'Wait a bit, and I'll make you another drink.'
'I'll be finished in just a bit.'
'Let's hang around for a bit and see if any girls show up.'

Mister Micawber

clarence

#111734 Thu, 23 Jun 05 09:07 AM

Thanks a lot for clarifying. Interestingly, I'd definitely use 'a while' for all 3 examples you've given. Even now that I know 'a bit' can be used to express time, using it somehow still doesn't 'sound right' to the ear among my friends who are non-native speakers (I guess even so, even after we have knowledge of its durational meaning). But I'm glad I can now understand it when conversing with native speakers.

clarence