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xkcd again, but now on linguists and their weird habits (mander.xyz)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I feel slightly offended. Because it's true.

(Alt text: "Do you feel like the answer depends on whether you're currently in the hole, versus when you refer to the events later after you get out? Assuming you get out.")

xkcd source

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

As a native speaker, that makes sense, but they still both sound interchangeable.

Edit: In this situation, anyway. Other people are pointing out that "down a hole" wouldn't work if it was a hole you couldn't actually be "inside of", like a pothole in a road. In that case "in a hole" would still be okay, as it's a partial kind of "in" like water in a dish.

The pragmatics of the sentence in the comic is that the person is in/down the hole, and this is not a normal state of affairs. The exact sort of envelopment isn't emphasised, and I imagine the choice would come down to exact idiolect. I'd say "down", I picture someone from another province or old for "in".

"Down" definitely implies vertical entry, although it could be an abstract downwards, like "he's further down the tunnel" - an entry is imagined as being at the top by default.