Date:  Thu, 20 Jul 1995 18:44:36 +0000

From:  John Kirk <jkirk[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CLIO.ARTS.QUB.AC.UK>

Subject: Re: "at the end of the day"



Alan,



"At the end of the day" is very widespread here in Belfast - everyone from

politician to plumber seems to use in expressing their point of view about

what might ultimately happen:



At the end of the day we all want to live in peace.



Or it might express an ultimate inference or conclusion:



At the end of the day it all comes down to money.



On some occasions, though, it has a pragmatic function: either to seek

immediate agreement or to avoid addressing the present or the immediate -

as none of us can really know what will happen at the end of the day - so

your view is as good as mine right now.



Sp Philip Hiscock is right in pointing its use back to Britain. I'm sure if

you logged onto COBUILD direct on-line you'd come up with many examples

from their 215 million words (!) monitor corpus.



Best wishes,



John Kirk



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John M. Kirk

School of English

The Queen's University of Belfast



Email: J.M.Kirk[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]qub.ac.uk (used to be eng0997[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]qub.ac.uk)





Fax: (+44) 1232 314615

Phone: (+44) 1232 245133, Ext 3815

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