Query Details

Query Subject:	Referential/Expressive
Author:	Suzette Haden Elgin
Submitter Email:	click here to access email

Linguistic LingField(s):	Phonetics Pragmatics Semantics

Query:	July 14, 1999 Dear Linguistpersons, I'd be grateful for your help with the following pair: (1) Q: ''How could you do that?'' A: ''Well, I guess I could start by putting them all in alphabetical order.'' (2) Q: ''HOW could you DO that??'' A: ''Well, if I hadn't done it she wouldn't have gone to Bermuda with me!'' I haven't been able to find any information about work done with pairs like these; if you could direct me to a source, I'd be grateful. I'd also like to know how, precisely, you would explain the meaning difference regarding this pair to beginning students. (The more beginning the better, since what I have to do is explain it do nonlinguists.) Explanations such as ''There are things that Providence doesn't intend for us to know'' won't speak to my needs. If anything useful comes of this query, I'll post a summary. Suzette Haden Elgin ocls@ipa.net www.sfwa.org/members/net
LL Issue:	10.1105
Date posted:	18-Jul-1999
Back

Sums main page

New from Cambridge University Press!