Silver
Senior Member
Chongqing
Chinese,Cantonese,Sichuan dialect
- Oct 8, 2019
- #1
Hi.
I read this sentence from Camdict.org:
Historically speaking, the island is of great interest. (Source: speak)
It means is "talking from a particular point of view". I wonder if the sentence means "Talking from the view of history, this island is of great interest".
Thanks a lot
lingobingo
Senior Member
London
English - England
- Oct 8, 2019
- #2
Hmm. I don’t think that’s a particularly good example of the construction (the others given – generally speaking and strictly speaking – are much more typical). Historically speaking, the island is of great interest (my preferences)
From a historical point of view, the island is of great interest
As far as its history is concerned, the island is of great interest
se16teddy
Senior Member
London but from Yorkshire
English - England
- Oct 8, 2019
- #3
I suppose it just means that the island has an interesting history.
B
boozer
Senior Member
Bulgaria
Bulgarian
- Oct 8, 2019
- #4
Silver said:
"Talking from the view of history, this island is of great interest".
Well, history does not have a viewpoint of its own, so the reference is to the viewpoint of someone interested in history. As Teddy says, the island has an interesting history, so you will be interested in it if you are generally interested in history.
Ashraful Haque
Senior Member
Bengali
- Mar 19, 2023
- #5
How does this sentence sound?
A: The government is going to renovate the place.
B: Modernizing historic buildings often do more than harm than good. Historically speaking, we humans are notorious for destruction. We're better at destruction than creation.
lingobingo
Senior Member
London
English - England
- Mar 19, 2023
- #6
It would be much better without “speaking” added. (And with the verb in the first sentence corrected.)
Ashraful Haque
Senior Member
Bengali
- Mar 24, 2023
- #7
lingobingo said:
It would be much better without “speaking” added. (And with the verb in the first sentence corrected.)
I think I understand why dropping 'speaking' sounds better. Is it the same case when we usually say 'frankly' instead of 'frankly speaking'?
"Frankly, I don't care."
lingobingo
Senior Member
London
English - England
- Mar 24, 2023
- #8
Yes. I would never add speaking in that case either, since it adds nothing. But it is idiomatic in some instances, such as “generally speaking”, meaning “in general”.
PaulQ
Senior Member
UK
English - England
- Mar 24, 2023
- #9
Silver said:
Historically speaking, the island is of great interest.
That works for me. However, the construction is used for two purposes (i) as an introduction to the background where the island is now famous for something else other than its history or (ii) to introduce separate part of a talk about the island in general.
Ashraful Haque
Senior Member
Bengali
- Mar 31, 2023
- #10
PaulQ said:
That works for me. However, the construction is used for two purposes (i) as an introduction to the background where the island is now famous for something else other than its history or (ii) to introduce separate part of a talk about the island in general.
Does this sound good to you?
A: The government is going to renovate the place.
B: Modernizing historic buildings often do more than harm than good. Historically speaking, we humans are notorious for destruction. We're better at destruction than creation.
se16teddy
Senior Member
London but from Yorkshire
English - England
- Mar 31, 2023
- #11
it sounds horribly vague to me. What exactly is the relationship between history and destruction? (I don’t use “… speaking” much myself, except perhaps to be deliberately evasive.)
PaulQ
Senior Member
UK
English - England
- Mar 31, 2023
- #12
Ashraful Haque said:
Does this sound good to you?
Yes. It sounds natural. I would not be surprised to hear it.
Roxxxannne
Senior Member
American English (New England and NYC)
- Mar 31, 2023
- #13
Ashraful Haque said:
Does this sound good to you?
A: The government is going to renovate the place.
B: Modernizing historic buildings often do more than harm than good. Historically speaking, we humans are notorious for destruction. We're better at destruction than creation.
The sentence that begins "Historically speaking" sounds good to me in terms of grammar, but to me it means that when one looks at human activity through the course of many centuries, one can see that we humans are notorious for destroying things in general. It's not clear that it refers to destroying things that were built or made in the past.
@Ashraful Haque, is that what you want to say?
Also, in B the verb should be does, not do. "[The act of] modernizing historic buildings" is grammatically singular.
cidertree
Senior Member
Gran Canaria
HIberno-English
- Apr 1, 2023
- #14
Thread splitting:
"Historically speaking" (#5) sounds to me like "Over the course of history" - not what @Silver wanted to say in #1
dojibear
Senior Member
Fresno CA
English (US - northeast)
- Apr 1, 2023
- #15
I think that starting a statement with "Historically speaking," means that the information in the statement is only about what we can learn from history, not what we know from the current situation, from science, etc.
Historically speaking, Upper Popcornland was a very aggressive country. They started 54 wars in only 19 years.
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