tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Sep 19 21:26:48 2007

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Re: Positioning for emphasis

Robyn Stewart ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

At 07:51 PM 9/19/2007, you wrote:
>         I'm going to tell you something about a child. Ready for a story
>         about a child? Here it is: He hit the officer.
>
>Who on earth wouldn't make the connection?

I was going to just leave this subject alone, having given my 
thoughts on it, but I can't resist pointing out that "who on *Earth*" 
is not what we're concerned about.  Just because it's connectable, 
doesn't mean it is a valid utterance in the language. "He hit the 
officer, the child" is interpretable in English, and it is something 
that might come out of someone's mouth in a breathless recounting of 
an incident, but it's not a construct anyone would argue for.

jaiHvaD rIntaH.

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