Names are important. (Neo-)Whorfians — those who favour some stronger or weaker version of the theory of linguistic relativity usually attributed to Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf — have been known to claim that . This is intuitively true — naming of children takes forever. Norbert, Deirdre, Sharon, Carter.
And so it was with a heavy heart that I*
I considered writing under an alter ego — as some linguist called Tix — for the sole purpose of justifying the blog title 'Linguist Tix', but apparently 'Tix' is actually a Basque name (a contraction of ). I had been sure that it was also an English name, but it seems that was wishful thinking primed by the close 'Trix' (< Patricia). Of course, my fiction skills could not extend as far as to reliably impersonate the insights of a Basque speaker, and so I searched for an alternative homonym, and found 'tics', which seemed to fit the bill (being sufficiently vague as to invite the reader to imagine that the coiner had a precise and potentially rather clever meaning in mind).
*Number of hits on google for these exact phrases:
"and so it was with a heavy heart" 8,630,000
"and so it was with a heavy heart that": 5,640,000
"and so it was with heavy heart": 2,650,000
"and so it was with heavy heart that": 1,770,000
"and so it was with a heavy heart that I": 697,000
"and so it was with a heavy heart that she": 266,000
"and so it was with a heavy heart" not followed by "that": 1,660 (maths doesn't work out from above, but oh well)*
"and so it was with heavy heart" not followed by "that": 8 (again, maths doesn't work out from above)**
"and so it was with a heavy heart that he": 10
"and so it was that with a heavy heart": 10
"and so it was that with heavy heart": 9
"and so it was with a heavy heart but a": 6
"and so it was with a heavy heart that they": 5
"and so it was with a heavy heart that you": 0
"and so it was with a heavy heart that it": 0
Notable finds:
"And so it was with a heavy heart, clean clothes and a 5 word Spanish vocabulary that I prepared to finally leave the Caribbean islands."
"And so, it was with a heavy heart that I left her warmth that night, it was with a trembling hand that I wrote the note I left on her bedside table and it was with a wracking sob that I looked upon her form for the last time, moonlight highlighting the soft skin I had peppered with kisses and only the most gentle of touches hours earlier…in some way I wanted her to wake up, to open those bright eyes and reassure me that I could do this, that I could let her love me as she had done so many times before…but she couldn’t, a slow-building sedation spell had made sure of that."
(The smaller of these results suggested that I click to include similar results, in which case google claimed hits in the millions again; but proceeding to following pages of results revealed this to be a bluff, as the number of hits reverted to within an order of ten of the original, low claim.)
*this one I got from searching the following: "and so it was with a heavy heart" -"and so it was with a heavy heart that"
**from searching: "and so it was with heavy heart" -"and so it was with heavy heart that"
"and so it was with a heavy heart" 8,630,000
"and so it was with a heavy heart that": 5,640,000
"and so it was with heavy heart": 2,650,000
"and so it was with heavy heart that": 1,770,000
"and so it was with a heavy heart that I": 697,000
"and so it was with a heavy heart that she": 266,000
"and so it was with a heavy heart" not followed by "that": 1,660 (maths doesn't work out from above, but oh well)*
"and so it was with heavy heart" not followed by "that": 8 (again, maths doesn't work out from above)**
"and so it was with a heavy heart that he": 10
"and so it was that with a heavy heart": 10
"and so it was that with heavy heart": 9
"and so it was with a heavy heart but a": 6
"and so it was with a heavy heart that they": 5
"and so it was with a heavy heart that you": 0
"and so it was with a heavy heart that it": 0
Notable finds:
"And so it was with a heavy heart, clean clothes and a 5 word Spanish vocabulary that I prepared to finally leave the Caribbean islands."
"And so, it was with a heavy heart that I left her warmth that night, it was with a trembling hand that I wrote the note I left on her bedside table and it was with a wracking sob that I looked upon her form for the last time, moonlight highlighting the soft skin I had peppered with kisses and only the most gentle of touches hours earlier…in some way I wanted her to wake up, to open those bright eyes and reassure me that I could do this, that I could let her love me as she had done so many times before…but she couldn’t, a slow-building sedation spell had made sure of that."
(The smaller of these results suggested that I click to include similar results, in which case google claimed hits in the millions again; but proceeding to following pages of results revealed this to be a bluff, as the number of hits reverted to within an order of ten of the original, low claim.)
*this one I got from searching the following: "and so it was with a heavy heart" -"and so it was with a heavy heart that"
**from searching: "and so it was with heavy heart" -"and so it was with heavy heart that"
References:
A Grammar of Basque edited by José Ignacio Hualde, Jon Ortiz de Urbina
A Grammar of Basque edited by José Ignacio Hualde, Jon Ortiz de Urbina