He was just a-walking...

Question

What role does the 'a-' prefix perform in constructions like that?Regards,Grzegorz

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]What role does the 'a-' prefix perform in constructions like that?[/nq]
It signals that an "-ing" is coming up.
More seriously, it's a fossil found in some dialects that represents, according to Baugh and Cable ( A History of the English Language, 3e , p. 291) a reduced form of the preposition "on" that was found in the beginning stages of the English progressive, somewhere around the sixteenth century. That is to say, the subject sentence would have originally been
He was just on walking.
where "walking" was still seen as a noun. This later reduced to "was a-walking", and finally (in most dialects) to "was walking", and we now think of "walking" as a verb form.

Evan Kirshenbaum

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]What role does the 'a-' prefix perform in constructions like that?[/nq]
[nq:1]It signals that an "-ing" is coming up.[/nq]
And it often means folk music. Watch out for people with a hand cupped over one ear.

John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]What role does the 'a-' prefix perform in constructions like that?[/nq]
[nq:1]It signals that an "-ing" is coming up. More seriously, it's a fossil found in some dialects that represents, according ... "was a-walking", and finally (in most dialects) to "was walking", and we now think of "walking" as a verb form.[/nq]
Surely "at" was the preposition, not "on"?
Somewhere I read that "go a-Maying" was
from "go at Maying."

Michael West
Melbourne, Australia

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]where "walking" was still seen as a noun. This later ... and we now think of "walking" as a verb form.[/nq]
[nq:1]Surely "at" was the preposition, not "on"? Somewhere I read that "go a-Maying" was from "go at Maying."[/nq]
I had thought it was "at", as well, but they clearly say "on":

In Old English such expressions as he wæs lærende (he was teaching) are occasionally found, but usually in translations from Latin. In early Middle English, progressive forms are distinctly rare, and although their number increases in the course of the Middle English period, we must credit their development mainly to the period since the sixteenth century. The chief factor in their growth is the use of the participle as a noun goverened by the preposition on ( he burst out on laughing ).(*) This weakened to he burst out a-laughing and finally to he burst out laughing . In the same way he was on laughing became he was a-laughing and he was laughing . Today such forms are freely used in all tenses ( is laughing , was laughing , will be laughing , etc.)
(*) In Middle English, forms without the preposition are usually accompanied by an adverb like always , all day , etc. (Cf. Chaucer's syngyngehe was, or floytynge, al the day ).

Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable
A History of the English Language, Third Edition Prentice-Hall, 1978. p. 291.

Evan Kirshenbaum + HP Laboratories >It is a popular delusion that the
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Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]It signals that an "-ing" is coming up.[/nq]
[nq:1]And it often means folk music. Watch out for people with a hand cupped over one ear.[/nq]
Not to be difficult, but no violins are involved. Those be fiddles you be a-hearing!

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]It signals that an "-ing" is coming up.[/nq]
[nq:1]And it often means folk music. Watch out for people with a hand cupped over one ear.[/nq]
That'd be a Bee Gee. A true folkie has a hand a-cupped over one ear-o.

**
Ross Howard

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Ross Howard wibbled
[nq:2]And it often means folk music. Watch out for people with a hand cupped over one ear.[/nq]
[nq:1]That'd be a Bee Gee. A true folkie has a hand a-cupped over one ear-o.[/nq]
And some moulies in his ganderbag.
Jac

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Surely "at" was the preposition, not "on"? Somewhere I read that "go a-Maying" was from "go at Maying."[/nq]
[nq:1]I had thought it was "at", as well, but they clearly say "on": In Old English such expressions as ... Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable A History of the English Language, Third Edition Prentice-Hall, 1978. p. 291.[/nq]
The Century Dictionary of 1895 ( www.century-dictionary.com ) agrees:
(quote)
a 3 , prep. (duced form of an, on, on, in : see on. ) A reduced form of the preposition on, formerly common
in all the uses of on, but now restricted to cer- tain constructions in which the preposition is
more or less disguised, being usually written as
one word with the following noun.
(end quote)
Examples given include "abed," "afoot," "apart,"
Later in the same entry, it has:
(quote)
( e ) Of action : In, to, into ;
with a verbal noun in -ing, taken actively.
(1) With be : as, to be a coming ; to be a doing ; to be a fighting. Now only colloquial or provincial, literary usage omitting the preposition, and treating the verbal noun as a present participle : as, to be coming ; to be doing. (2) With verbs of motion : as, to go a fishing ; to go a wooing ; to go a begging ; to fall a crying ; to set a going. The preposition is often joined to the noun by a hyphen, as, to go a -fishing, or sometimes omitted, as, to go fishing, to set going, etc. For other examples of the uses of a 3, prep., see the prepositional phrases abed, aboard, ahead, etc., or the simple nouns.
(end quote)

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]And it often means folk music. Watch out for people with a hand cupped over one ear.[/nq]
[nq:1]Not to be difficult, but no violins are involved. Those be fiddles you be a-hearing![/nq]
I was doing a sound effect. You know, the one from Horror Movies when the victim suddenly sees the Monster's face?

John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

Usenet · Answer

Ross Howard filted:
[nq:2]And it often means folk music. Watch out for people with a hand cupped over one ear.[/nq]
[nq:1]That'd be a Bee Gee. A true folkie has a hand a-cupped over one ear-o.[/nq]
Gary Owens was a Bee Gee?...r

He was just a-walking...

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