On the Dutch temporal adverbial goed en wel

Abstract

Abstract The paper investigates the origin, the development, the semantics and the pragmatics of the temporal use of the Dutch expression goed en wel ‘good and well’. We argue that the expression has developed from a meaning “safe and sound” into an indicator of the end of a preparatory phase or transition period, as well as a marker of the beginning of a new state. We observe that temporal goed en wel always requires a secondary state of affairs that is temporally related to the transition point initiating the primary state of affairs, and we show that the expression is increasingly being employed for rhetorical purposes.