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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > What īs the difference ?
What īs the difference ?
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NanG
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What īs the difference ?
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Hi everyone!
I īm reading an excerpt from the novel The Secret Garden and I found that at some point it says "Then she waited a moment and listened AT the stillness".
And now I īm in doubt as regards the difference in use ( or meaning perhaps) between listen at and listen to.
Could you help me with this?
Thanks in advance and kind regards! =)
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11 Jul 2010
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Apodo
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You can listen at the door, but listen at the stillness wouldn īt be used in modern speech.
I think it is used because the book was written so long ago. |
11 Jul 2010
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SueThom
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I agree with Apodo: listening at a door, but not at stillness.
What chapter is it in? If you answer soon, I īll look it up online and see if I can figure anything else out from the context.
Sue
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11 Jul 2010
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NanG
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Thanks for answering!
Sue: It īs chapter 9 . It īs the second paragraph. =) |
11 Jul 2010
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SueThom
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http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Frances_Hodgson_Burnett/The_Secret_Garden/THE_STRANGEST_HOUSE_ANY_ONE_EVER_LIVED_IN_p1.html
Mary had thought it must be different from other gardens
which had not been left all by themselves so long;
and indeed it was different from any other place she had
ever seen in her life.
"How still it is!" she whispered. "How still!"
Then she waited a moment and listened at the stillness.
The robin, who had flown to his treetop, was still
as all the rest. He did not even flutter his wings;
he sat without stirring, and looked at Mary.
Well, that īs not how I would have written it nor how I would say it. In reading it in the past, I probably thought of it as a "Britishism". Maybe I īve been thinking about it too much or mentally saying it to myself, but reading it in context it doesn īt sound so odd.
I īm interested in hearing what others have to say about it.
Sue
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11 Jul 2010
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yanogator
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One possibility is that Ms Burnett created this phrase to set a tone. Mary couldn īt listen to the stillness, because you can only listen to sound, and there was no sound, so the author "solidified" the stillness into a thing (like a door, which you can listen at).
That īs my guess,
Bruce |
11 Jul 2010
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NanG
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Thanks to all of you for answering !!  Thanks indeed!! |
11 Jul 2010
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sp.watson
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I agree with Bruce, this is not normal English, either modern or from past times, but simply a literary device to draw attention to an important idea. Don īt forget that many famous authors have frequently broken new ground and contributed new words and usages to the language. Shakespeare is the most widely known example. This one obviously didn īt catch on and enter general use though. |
11 Jul 2010
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