Query Details

Query Subject:	Sarcastic imperatives
Author:	Kevin R Gregg
Submitter Email:	click here to access email

Linguistic LingField(s):	General Linguistics Pragmatics Semantics Sociolinguistics

Query:	Japanese has a couple of fixed phrases, non-polite imperatives whose illocutionary force is the reverse of the literal meaning: baka ie! (lit., 'say something stupid!', i.e. don't talk nonsense), uso o tuke!/ie! (lit., 'tell a lie!', i.e. nonsense! etc.). These seem to be restricted to the non-polite imperative form (you don't say 'baka iinasai!') and non-productive (you don't say, e.g. 'Make up an excuse!') A colleague has asked me if English has similar sorts of expressions; the best I can come up with is, 'Tell me about it,' and 'Pull the other one (it's got bells on)'. My native-speaker intuitions have decayed over the years; am I missing any obvious examples? Yiddish has frayg mir ('ask me' i.e., don't ask me; how should I know?). Are there similar expressions (fixed or productive) in other languages? Kevin R. Gregg Momoyama Gakuin University (St. Andrew's University) 1-1 Manabino, Izumi Osaka 594-1198 Japan tel.no. 0725-54-3131 (ext. 3622) fax. 0725-54-3202
LL Issue:	10.727
Date posted:	12-May-1999
Back

Sums main page

New from Cambridge University Press!