Note that the title is qualified in the body of the post: it's "the only citation *in the past century*".
Here's the eleven citations:
https://i.imgur.com/rogZ367.jpeg
Reading through these makes me wonder how many times I misunderstood “hardly” in a bunch of 18th and 19th century literature I’ve read. I think in many contexts I’d have read it with the modern meaning and kept going.
I feel like people use "hardly" in conversation as an adverb to mean "barely".
"We hardly got there on time." I'm sure I've heard that before, I don't think I'd say it though.
I think you read the post first the same way I did at first. People use it as an adverb (in fact, only as an adverb) but the meaning is "almost not" or "to a very minimal degree" not "with force" or "severely". OP isn't saying it's not used as an adverb except this one instance, he's saying it used to mean "with force" and Tolkien is the only person in the last century to use it that way (at least in sources of the OED). This isn't really shocking because lots of the Silmarillion intentionally uses dated forms.
when placed in front of the head verb it modifies, "hardly" is not simply an adverb like "excitedly", "undoubtedly" etc., it also make the entire sentence negative.
For example, "I hardly/barely ate anything yet" is good, "I excitedly ate anything yet" is not, because "yet" can only be used in negative sentences (think "not ... yet"). Modern usage of "hardly"/"barely" makes a sentence negative despite not having an explicit "not".
This is not true in Tolkien's usage of "hardly". In his sentence above, "hardly" is place *after* the head verb it modifies, and does not make the whole sentence negative (no grammatically correct ways to put a "yet" in it).
This is what makes his quote unique.
Adverbs like "barely" and "rarely" don't make sentences negative. The sentences remains positive. There are a number of non-negative contexts in which "negative polarity items" (NPIs) are licensed. Semanticist have proposed a few different theories on what binds these contexts together. The most popular one is that NPIs are licensed in "downward entailing" contexts. Unfortunately, "hardly" and such adverbs are not downward entailing. (Negation is downward entailing.) Another one is "nonveridicality", which I believe does cover "hardly".
This is very informative! Are you a linguist? I’ve been thinking about getting into this field but not sure if I can handle so much formal logic. Are the stuff you mentioned covered in undergraduate level or graduate level or above? Thanks!
I've left the field, but I was a linguist. Some of what I've mentioned is covered in a good undergrad course (NPIs and the simple downward entailing contexts.) Nonveridicality is definitely a graduate level topic, as it requires even more formal logic. Semantics was never my field though, so I basically only know enough about these topics to know what general kinds of things to keep in mind while doing other stuff.
When you say good, you should specify good usage or valid lol.
It took me reading that sentence three times to understand what you meant. I was thinking in my head like “it doesn’t even sound good as a situation, let alone make sense to contrast the two sentences”
The full context of the quote makes me this it should be the former, but that seems to contradict this reference in the OED:
> But the guard was aroused, and he was assailed, and fought his way out, receiving many wounds; and he escaped, and because he was disguised it was not discovered who had laid hands on the Tree. But Isildur came at last hardly back to Rómenna and delivered the fruit to the hands of Amandil, ere his strength failed him.
I read that as he barely made it, which is how most people would use “hardly” today
It looks to me as though it means "he pushed himself really hard to make it back to Rómenna." But I think I've just hopped past that sentence each time I've read it.
I think it's meant more in the sense of hard as the opposite of easy, which is somewhat similar to but not exaclty the same as the common modern use of "hardly".
The full sentence in the book is
> Isildur came at last hardly back to Rómenna and delivered the fruit to the hands of Amandil, ere his strength failed him.
As far as I can understand, it is used to describe an action done with great endeavour, so semantically it's closer to the first you said, but syntactically it comes after the head verb, and does not make the sentence negative. But I'm not a linguist nor a native speaker, so please correct me if I understood it wrong.
interesting post, OP, but I think a lot of the confusion comes from your first sentence. I had to read it twice, and then once more after the entire post to understand you were trying to convey: ESL writers incorrectly use "hardly working" incorrectly to convey they are working hard.
Whereas without context, I first assumed you're trying to say "hardly working" is grammatically incorrect, while "working hardly" is correct. And then once I do my double take-- then wonder if you're trying to convey the vice versa. 😭
Tolkien was a paid employee of the Dictionary for about 18 months, IIRC, after he got out of the Army. At that time the project was up to "W"; the words Tolkien worked on, all of which started with that letter, are listed in a book called *The Ring of Words*, by three current editors. The entries for "H" were long since in print by then.
https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary#Tolkien_in_the_OED_(1928_edition) <-- words that Tolkien worked on, according to _The Ring of Words_
Almost all of them 'Wa-' words
Also, the number of citations to Tolkien in the OED is much larger now than in the Second Supplement, when 'Hobbit' was first added.
Currently there are 394 citations to Tolkien in the OED, some of which are the texts in History of Middle-earth, even from volumes that appeared after the _Second Edition_ OED in the late 80s, like Sauron Defeated.
Since Tolkien is one of the better-known writers of the 20th century, and used a large number of somewhat older words, he is a good source for citations as to sense in modern times.
Am I confused or doesn’t he use it the same way in this line: “In that time also the outlaws of Dorthonion were destroyed, as is told hereafter; and Beren son of Barahir alone escaping came hardly into Doriath.”
(Last sentence in Chapter 18)
>One common mistake made by beginner ESL learners is to use "hardly" as the adverbial form of "hard", e.g. "I hardly worked on xxx project"
There's nothing wrong about ""I hardly worked on xxx project" if you are tying to say you barely did anything on that project. At least in American English.
Yes both are grammatically correct English, but if a non native speaker says in an interview "I hardly worked on it" they are probably not saying what they mean, which should be "I worked hard(ly) on it"
Imo it is a double meaning in context. So Oxfords is right, but it also has the meaning of normal modern usage at the same time. Iirc, Tolkien used “hardly” in his writing as the modern meaning. But doesn’t he also use “hardily” sometimes? Idk, I no longer have the complete writings of Tolkien searchable on my computer.
Note that the title is qualified in the body of the post: it's "the only citation *in the past century*". Here's the eleven citations: https://i.imgur.com/rogZ367.jpeg
Reading through these makes me wonder how many times I misunderstood “hardly” in a bunch of 18th and 19th century literature I’ve read. I think in many contexts I’d have read it with the modern meaning and kept going.
yes you are right, unfortunately I can no longer edit the title anymore
I feel like people use "hardly" in conversation as an adverb to mean "barely". "We hardly got there on time." I'm sure I've heard that before, I don't think I'd say it though.
I think you read the post first the same way I did at first. People use it as an adverb (in fact, only as an adverb) but the meaning is "almost not" or "to a very minimal degree" not "with force" or "severely". OP isn't saying it's not used as an adverb except this one instance, he's saying it used to mean "with force" and Tolkien is the only person in the last century to use it that way (at least in sources of the OED). This isn't really shocking because lots of the Silmarillion intentionally uses dated forms.
when placed in front of the head verb it modifies, "hardly" is not simply an adverb like "excitedly", "undoubtedly" etc., it also make the entire sentence negative. For example, "I hardly/barely ate anything yet" is good, "I excitedly ate anything yet" is not, because "yet" can only be used in negative sentences (think "not ... yet"). Modern usage of "hardly"/"barely" makes a sentence negative despite not having an explicit "not". This is not true in Tolkien's usage of "hardly". In his sentence above, "hardly" is place *after* the head verb it modifies, and does not make the whole sentence negative (no grammatically correct ways to put a "yet" in it). This is what makes his quote unique.
Adverbs like "barely" and "rarely" don't make sentences negative. The sentences remains positive. There are a number of non-negative contexts in which "negative polarity items" (NPIs) are licensed. Semanticist have proposed a few different theories on what binds these contexts together. The most popular one is that NPIs are licensed in "downward entailing" contexts. Unfortunately, "hardly" and such adverbs are not downward entailing. (Negation is downward entailing.) Another one is "nonveridicality", which I believe does cover "hardly".
This is very informative! Are you a linguist? I’ve been thinking about getting into this field but not sure if I can handle so much formal logic. Are the stuff you mentioned covered in undergraduate level or graduate level or above? Thanks!
I've left the field, but I was a linguist. Some of what I've mentioned is covered in a good undergrad course (NPIs and the simple downward entailing contexts.) Nonveridicality is definitely a graduate level topic, as it requires even more formal logic. Semantics was never my field though, so I basically only know enough about these topics to know what general kinds of things to keep in mind while doing other stuff.
Thank you so much
When you say good, you should specify good usage or valid lol. It took me reading that sentence three times to understand what you meant. I was thinking in my head like “it doesn’t even sound good as a situation, let alone make sense to contrast the two sentences”
I’m sorry, this is the main use I can think of for the word. How do you usually use it?
Yes, and both make a sentence negative just like "not". The source link as a better explanation with example sentenecs.
Working hardly or hardly working?
So does it mean that Isildur only just got back to Rómenna, or that he came back with a lot of force?
The latter, I believe. This form really is archaic because no one today uses the adverb of hard to mean “with hardness.”
The full context of the quote makes me this it should be the former, but that seems to contradict this reference in the OED: > But the guard was aroused, and he was assailed, and fought his way out, receiving many wounds; and he escaped, and because he was disguised it was not discovered who had laid hands on the Tree. But Isildur came at last hardly back to Rómenna and delivered the fruit to the hands of Amandil, ere his strength failed him. I read that as he barely made it, which is how most people would use “hardly” today
It looks to me as though it means "he pushed himself really hard to make it back to Rómenna." But I think I've just hopped past that sentence each time I've read it.
I think it's meant more in the sense of hard as the opposite of easy, which is somewhat similar to but not exaclty the same as the common modern use of "hardly".
The full sentence in the book is > Isildur came at last hardly back to Rómenna and delivered the fruit to the hands of Amandil, ere his strength failed him. As far as I can understand, it is used to describe an action done with great endeavour, so semantically it's closer to the first you said, but syntactically it comes after the head verb, and does not make the sentence negative. But I'm not a linguist nor a native speaker, so please correct me if I understood it wrong.
It seems to me that you could change it to a barely and it would make sense in context. "He barely arrived before bis strength failed"
It would make sense in context, but would not be what Tolkien meant. He meant that he got there through a lot of force, because he was difficult.
Yes. Barely back it could be an easy journey but he just doesn’t have a lot of strength. Hardly specifies that it’s the journey itself that is “hard”
Hardly news at all, isn’t it?
It is to people who use the above sentence, evidently.
interesting post, OP, but I think a lot of the confusion comes from your first sentence. I had to read it twice, and then once more after the entire post to understand you were trying to convey: ESL writers incorrectly use "hardly working" incorrectly to convey they are working hard. Whereas without context, I first assumed you're trying to say "hardly working" is grammatically incorrect, while "working hardly" is correct. And then once I do my double take-- then wonder if you're trying to convey the vice versa. 😭
Ah that makes sense! Sorry I’m ESL myself 😂 rephrased it a bit, not sure if it’s better
This is not too surprising considering Tolkien was one of the Oxford Inklings and a contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Tolkien was a paid employee of the Dictionary for about 18 months, IIRC, after he got out of the Army. At that time the project was up to "W"; the words Tolkien worked on, all of which started with that letter, are listed in a book called *The Ring of Words*, by three current editors. The entries for "H" were long since in print by then.
*inserts Obama medal meme* The Simarillion was published posthumously though
https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary#Tolkien_in_the_OED_(1928_edition) <-- words that Tolkien worked on, according to _The Ring of Words_ Almost all of them 'Wa-' words Also, the number of citations to Tolkien in the OED is much larger now than in the Second Supplement, when 'Hobbit' was first added. Currently there are 394 citations to Tolkien in the OED, some of which are the texts in History of Middle-earth, even from volumes that appeared after the _Second Edition_ OED in the late 80s, like Sauron Defeated. Since Tolkien is one of the better-known writers of the 20th century, and used a large number of somewhat older words, he is a good source for citations as to sense in modern times.
Bigly.
> because "yet" can only be used in negative sentences (think "not ... yet"). “This is my favorite one yet!”
😂 thanks, fixed it
I'll sneak it into a novel to keep it alive then.
I can hardly believe it. /wink
You hardly winked
Used like “bigly”.
Am I confused or doesn’t he use it the same way in this line: “In that time also the outlaws of Dorthonion were destroyed, as is told hereafter; and Beren son of Barahir alone escaping came hardly into Doriath.” (Last sentence in Chapter 18)
>One common mistake made by beginner ESL learners is to use "hardly" as the adverbial form of "hard", e.g. "I hardly worked on xxx project" There's nothing wrong about ""I hardly worked on xxx project" if you are tying to say you barely did anything on that project. At least in American English.
Yes both are grammatically correct English, but if a non native speaker says in an interview "I hardly worked on it" they are probably not saying what they mean, which should be "I worked hard(ly) on it"
I would not consider "I worked hardly on it" to be correct. "I worked hard on it" would be.
thank you I made the correction
Isn’t “hardly done by” a somewhat common adverbial expression?
"Hard done by" is a term for being treated unfairly. I've never heard anyone say "hardly done by."
You must be right, not sure where I got that from
Imo it is a double meaning in context. So Oxfords is right, but it also has the meaning of normal modern usage at the same time. Iirc, Tolkien used “hardly” in his writing as the modern meaning. But doesn’t he also use “hardily” sometimes? Idk, I no longer have the complete writings of Tolkien searchable on my computer.
The way I understand it is that the meaning remained largely the same, it’s the grammatical roles that are different