almost ?

[Glenn Scheper]

Bekah and Jill brought to light:
> I began to run into the words "almost as if"...
> I think it is resistance in pure form, maybe.


The question made me think of Revelation 5:6:
 "...stood a Lamb as it had been slain,..."

which I most often think of AS IF it said:
 stood a Lamb as IF it had been slain,

but could be:
 stood a Lamb exactly as it had been slain,

or less likely:
 stood a Lamb because it had been slain,


The freeware Interlinear Scripture Analyzer
available from http://www.scripture4all.org/
says of that word, AS:

_____GREEK_____

 5613 hos {hoce}
 
 probably from comparative from 3739;; adv
 
 AV - as 342, when 42, how 18, as it were 20, about 14, misc 56; 492
 
 1) as, like, even as, etc.



"As if" is certainly a good opening for a metaphor.
 Thou seest the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.

Or, to make a comparison with an implied contrast.
 was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God:

Or, to introduce an impossiblility for an illustration.
 as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up,

Or, to introduce a bluff, posturing.
 as if he were ready to destroy?

Or, to introduce a 'reason for' (most of the universe I
cannot explain, and have absurd hypotheses of causation
until disabused); but in this case, contrafactual, to
establish source and target domains for a metaphor, a
parable, an abduction, an aphorism:
 and we grope as if we had no eyes:

Or, for the insufficiency of terminology--I happen to
have decoded EZ 1 as an automobile engine; and this is
describing the relationship of pistons to a crankshaft:
 as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.

Or, for the theatre of falsehood:
 as if thou hadst not received it?



Here are all the "as if" I grepped from the KJV:

05_deut.txt:
 as if it be lame,
06_josh.txt:
 8:15 And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them,
 and went and made as if they had been ambassadors,
07_judg.txt:
 Thou seest the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.
10_2sam.txt:
 was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God:
 the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned:
11_1kin.txt:
 as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
18_job_.txt:
 as if it had issued out of the womb?
23_isai.txt:
 as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up,
 or as if the staff should lift up itself,
 as if it were no wood.
 as if he were ready to destroy?
 and we grope as if we had no eyes:
 66:3 He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man;
 as if he cut off a dog's neck;
 as if he offered swine's blood;
 as if he blessed an idol.
25_lame.txt:
 as if it were of a garden:
26_ezek.txt:
 as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.
 as if that were a very little thing,
30_amos.txt:
 5:19 As if a man did flee from a lion,
41_mark.txt:
 as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
46_1cor.txt:
 as if thou hadst not received it?
 for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
47_2cor.txt:
 which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
 10:9 That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.
 as if I were present,
66_reve.txt:
 as if they burned in a furnace;


Some people can make a living out of such small things:

This course is concerned with information structure and discourse structure, 
looked at primarily through the lens of a single focus particle, the exclusive 
"only", and its kin. Its kin include other exclusives (in English: "just", 
"merely"), as well as additives ("too", "also", "even"), and some cousins such 
as particularizers ("for example", "in particular"), downtoners ("at most", 
"sorta"), intensifiers ("really", "totally").
  -- http://linginst07.stanford.edu/courses.html
  Courses - LSA 2007 Institute - Stanford University


Yours truly,
Glenn Scheper
http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
Copyleft(!) Forward freely.