As It Seems
- 49
- 11
- 0
(A) "The love of a mother for her children is the most beautiful thing in the world; it is sometimes the redeeming quality in characters not otherwise attractive. She was a perfect mother, a very ideal type of mother; and in her the maternal instincts were, as it seemed, but the refined essence of the love which showed its strength in every other relation of life. Yet, because you know this so well, I feel it hard to dwell upon it at length. This much I will try to say: her love of you all was an enduring and constant source of happiness to her. Never did one of you give her pain either by bad conduct or any insensibility to her love." (Sir Leslie Stephen, "Mausoleum Book")
(B) "I felt a nightmare sensation of falling; and, looking round, I saw the laboratory exactly as before. Had anything happened? For a moment 1 suspected that my intellect had tricked me. Then I noted the clock. A moment before, as it seemed , it had stood at a minute or so past ten; now it was nearly half-past three! " I drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both hands, and went off with a thud." ("The Time Machine", 2008)
(C) As it seems she does not want to change.
(D) Studying abroad was as good an experience as it seemed.
I'm very interested in what the expression "as it seems" means.
Would you mind telling me if you feel any difference in nuance among the four usages of the phrase above?
(B) "I felt a nightmare sensation of falling; and, looking round, I saw the laboratory exactly as before. Had anything happened? For a moment 1 suspected that my intellect had tricked me. Then I noted the clock. A moment before, as it seemed , it had stood at a minute or so past ten; now it was nearly half-past three! " I drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both hands, and went off with a thud." ("The Time Machine", 2008)
(C) As it seems she does not want to change.
(D) Studying abroad was as good an experience as it seemed.
I'm very interested in what the expression "as it seems" means.
Would you mind telling me if you feel any difference in nuance among the four usages of the phrase above?
In (A), what is implied is "as it seemed to everyone who knew her". The whole passage strikes me as insincere, and none of the sentences have meanings which are very easy to pin down.
In (B), "as it seemed" could be replaced by "it seemed to me". The narrator is saying that he did not perceive any difference until he looked at the clock.
(C) is difficult to interpret without context. It could mean a variety of different things depending on the relationship of the speaker to "she" and to the listeners. It could also be the last piece of a longer sentence, with "as" functioning as a conjunction meaning "since", "because", "seeing that".
In (D), "as it seemed" is short for "as it seemed like it would be", which is essentially the same as "as I expected it to be". I think it is awkward sounding. This is definitely a different usage than the one in (A) and (B).