A-changing, a-drinking

Question

Hello,I've always assumed, without giving it too much thought, that Bob Dylan's Times are a-changing meant Times are changing, but a recent post here made me reconsider.If a + plain form gives you an adjective:live - aliveflutter - aflutterbuzz - abuzzthen perhaps the same holds true for a + ing-form, and Times are a-changing means Times change, Times are mutable.Similarly, Loretta Lynn's Don't come home a-drinking means Don't come home drunk.Is that correct?If so, is there a reason for choosing one over the other? Are there nuances in meaning, or do they basically just mean the same?Thank you for you helpH.

GPY · Accepted Answer

The prefix "a-" in "times are a-changing" and similar uses is a poetic way of emphasising activity in progress. It does not mean "times change".

See http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/a----2

(By the way, I think the lyric is actually "the times they are a-changing".)

Henry74 · Answer

Thank you GPY.

So, Don't come home a-drinking means Don't come home drinking, Don't come home with a bottle to your mouth, rather than Don't come home drunk; correct?

H.

GPY · Answer

Nominally yes, though in practice there may be some leeway to allow such use even if the person is not literally drinking at the moment they arrive home.

As I say, it's a poetic or dialect form. It would not be used in everyday English, at least not in the standard modern form of the language.

CalifJim · Answer

Henry74is there a reason for choosing one over the other?

Yes. In everyday speech and writing, say or write 'changing', never 'a-changing'. When writing lyrics to a folk song or country song that simulates the speech of the down-and-out, salt-of-the-earth types of people, or lyrics which simulate the style of rural England of centuries ago, you may fairly safely write 'a-changing'. You can even leave out the final 'g', substituting an apostrophe, for a more realistic transcription of the sound. a-changin'

a-changing means the same as changing. a-drinking means the same as drinking, namely, 'in the act or process of changing' and 'in the act or process of drinking'. It has nothing to do with being 'changed' or being 'drunk' (the past participles), though sometimes the result of the act or process can easily be inferred.

The a- prefix with -ing forms is a remnant of older English, where -ing words were frequently prefixed with the syllable a-. a-going, a-dancing, a-singing. (There may even be a connection with the evolution of such a- words as asleep, awake, across, and around.) I'm sure that one of our forum members who is well versed in the history of the English language can explain it better, but that's the basic idea.

The form has survived in certain kinds of music, perhaps for its ability to suggest life among rural folks as it was lived in times gone by.

CJ

Cool Breeze · Answer

CalifJimThe a- prefix with -ing forms is a remnant of older English, where ~~ing words were frequently prefixed with the syllable a~~. a-going, a-dancing, a-singing. (There may even be a connection with the evolution of such a- words as asleep, awake, across, and around.)

Correct!
a-,
a reduced form of the Old English preposition on, meaning “on,” “in,” “into,” “to,” “toward,” preserved before a noun in a prepositional phrase, forming a predicate adjective or an adverbial element (afoot; abed; ashore; aside; away), or before an adjective (afar; aloud; alow), as a moribund prefix with a verb (acknowledge), and in archaic and dialectal use before a present participle in -ing (set the bells aringing); and added to a verb stem with the force of a present participle (ablaze; agape; aglow; astride; and originally, awry).
RHUD

CB

Geoyo · Answer

I made similar question some time ago

AlpheccaStars · Answer

And another dictionary entry for the prefix a-

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/a-?r=66

— prefix
1. on; in; towards: afoot ; abed ; aground ; aback
2. literary , archaic or ( used before a present participle ) in the act or process of: come a-running ; go a-hunting
3. in the condition or state of: afloat ; alive ; asleep

A-changing, a-drinking

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