The meaning of 'how'

Question

An article titled "THE NIGHT ON THE BRIDGE" has this paragraph:I choked back tears as I contemplated my impending suicide attempt. What had started as a late-night run to clear my head had ended with me precariously balancing on the edge of a slippery bridge wall. Something inside was screaming at me to get down, begging me to think rationally about what I was about to do, but the despair in my heart was so heavy I thought it alone could drag me off the bridge into the traffic below. In that moment, I could think about nothing but how dying would end the torturous battle of being at odds with myself.Is it possible to replace how in the last sentence with the way? In that moment, I could think about nothing but the way dying would end the torturous battle of being at odds with myself.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

JungKimIs it possible to replace how in the last sentence with the way?

Yes, but it actually just means 'that':

I could think about nothing but that dying would end the torturous battle of being at odds with myself.

BillJ · Answer

JungKimIn that moment, I could think about nothing but how dying would end the torturous battle of being at odds with myself. Is it possible to replace how in the last sentence with the way? In that moment, I could think about nothing but the way dying would end the torturous battle of being at odds with myself.

[1] I could think about nothing but how dying would end the torturous battle of being at odds with myself.

[2] In that moment, I could think about nothing but the way (that) dying would end the torturous battle of being at odds with myself.

In [1] it’s tempting at first to treat “how” as an interrogative word, but I’d say that “how" has been bleached of its usual manner or degree meaning here and is functioning in much the same way as the subordinator “that”, though in a very informal way". So the underlined element is probably best analysed as a declarative content clause introduced by a variant of the subordinator “that”.

In [2] the underlined element would normally be treated as a relative clause where the relativised element is an adjunct of manner, as in for example “I liked the way that Ed dealt with the problem” (meaning “Ed dealt with the problem in x way”) . But that kind of interpretation isn't appropriate here, so I’d say that this is not a viable alternant to [1].

The meaning of 'how'

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