After writing the slightly offbase word anytime in previous post, I got thinking about the non-orthogonal nature of the ‘logicators’ in English.
| some | any | every | no | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who? | someone/somebody | anyone/anybody | everyone/everybody | noone/nobody |
| What? | something | anything | everything | nothing |
| Where? | somewhere | anywhere | everywhere | nowhere |
| How? | somehow | anyhow | — | nohow** |
| When? | sometime[s] | anytime | — | — |
| Why? | — | — | — | — |
We have complete rows for Who, What, and Where. Who has alternate choices for every quantity. How has one standard choice and two oddballs. Nohow is nonstandard but common. Anyhow is standard but has lost its meaning, becoming a mere conversational filler. When has only a couple of choices. Why has no representation at all.
There’s no phonetic reason for the missing choices. All of the missing items would be easy to pronounce and distinct from others.
Why is why defective? Possibly because why was not an independent word. It was originally the instrumental case of what, signifying ‘by what means’. Therefore is a semantic substitute for the ‘some’ column, but not in the pattern.
Always and never are semantic substitutes for the missing when columns, but not part of the pattern.
Polistra's Mill 