Soon Before

Arnold Zwicky, from ASD-L‘s recent discussion of “soon before”

> Seymour Hersh in /Chain of Command/ on pp. 355-6 writes:
> “....security official said in an interview _soon before_ the transfer of sovereignty that…”  [my emphasis].
> This looks & sounds very odd to me;  I would expect _shortly before_here.

“shortly” is fine, but “soon” sounds perfectly good to me here.  in
wh questions of extent, with “how”, “soon” is very common: “How soon
before the game did you arrive?”

outside of contexts with “how”, “soon before”  is common, though not
nearly as connon as “shortly before” or “soon after”.  in raw google
web hits:

  —> “soon before” -how: ca. 31,900
  “soon after” -how: ca. 2,670,000

  “shortly before”: ca. 2,960,000
  “shortly after”: ca. 11,400,000

 

Posted by Nathan Bierma on 05/26 at 08:49 AM
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