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Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009When is a question not a question?
I just sent an email in which I said "Do I ever know *that* feeling!" The sense is obviously an exclamation, but does the word order make it a question?  Signature³Don't water it down! You always water it down! Well, don't! Just don't!² - Mary Albinson > I just sent an email in which I said "Do I ever know *that* feeling!" > > The sense is obviously an exclamation, but does the word order make it a > question? So, your question is whether the inverted verb-subject order always indicates a question? Long live the king. Into the jaws of death rode the six hundred. No, it doesn't... Hmm, Bartleby seems to have lost the Columbia guide to English usage, but try the discussion here: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/subjects.htm#inversion SignatureBest -- Donna Richoux > > I just sent an email in which I said "Do I ever know *that* feeling!" > > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/subjects.htm#inversion Thanks. Signature³Don't water it down! You always water it down! Well, don't! Just don't!² - Mary Albinson trio@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote in news:1j2fov5.fpups01isqqq8N% trio@euronet.nl: > Into the jaws of death rode the six hundred. Into the jaws of death, Bypassing the mouth of hell Rode the six hundred. :-) Peter Pete wrote on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:25:11 GMT: >> Into the jaws of death rode the six hundred. > Into the jaws of death, > Bypassing the mouth of hell > Rode the six hundred. > :-) Are we to have recollections of bad nineteenth century poetry? I like "O'er the wires, the electric message came, He is no better, he is much the same", Alfred Austin. SignatureJames Silverton Potomac, Maryland Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not > trio@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote in news:1j2fov5.fpups01isqqq8N% > trio@euronet.nl: [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Bypassing the mouth of hell > Rode the six hundred. Yes, if I had put "Into the valley of death rode the six hundred" it would have been better, as on-line versions show that's in there twice. My version needs some dots: "Into the jaws of death ... Rode the six hundred." Oh, your "bypassing" is nowhere to be seen. Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred. http://www.nationalcenter.org/ChargeoftheLightBrigade.html SignatureBest -- Donna Richoux trio@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote in news:1j2l1pc.1fv4r2g16bxa0mN% trio@euronet.nl: >> trio@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote in news:1j2fov5.fpups01isqqq8N% >> trio@euronet.nl: [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Oh, your "bypassing" is nowhere to be seen. Really? I heard there was a half-league tailback at the mouth of Hell that day and that the six hundred used the side streets. Peter Quoth Pete <Pete@hotmail.com>, and I quote: >trio@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote in news:1j2fov5.fpups01isqqq8N% >trio@euronet.nl: [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >Bypassing the mouth of hell >Rode the six hundred. Up the proverbial creek Rowed the six hundred. SignatureJames > I just sent an email in which I said "Do I ever know *that* feeling!" > > The sense is obviously an exclamation, but does the word order make it a > question? Yes: cf. similar constructions (and their contexts) such as Do I feel blue? Do I have a deal for you! I.e. case 2 is grammatically a question, but rhetorically a declarative statement. SignatureDon Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) Quoth MC <copespaz@mapca.inter.net>, and I quote: >I just sent an email in which I said "Do I ever know *that* feeling!" > >The sense is obviously an exclamation, but does the word order make it a >question? Yes, grammatically it's a question, albeit of the rhetorical kind like "Is the Pope Catholic?" SignatureJames > Quoth MC <copes...@mapca.inter.net>, and I quote: > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Yes, grammatically it's a question, albeit of the rhetorical kind > like "Is the Pope Catholic?" But a rhetorical one; if it were terminated with a question mark, it would not deliver the intended meaning. An exclamation mark is just right. Mike M > Quoth MC <copes...@mapca.inter.net>, and I quote: > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Yes, grammatically it's a question, albeit of the rhetorical kind > like "Is the Pope Catholic?" Don't you just HATE rhetorical questions? Jim Deutch (JimboCat) -- "If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear." [unknown] Quoth JimboCat <103134.3516@compuserve.com>, and I quote: >> Quoth MC <copes...@mapca.inter.net>, and I quote: >> [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >Don't you just HATE rhetorical questions? Not all the time. They work well in that joke about Stalin. Stop me if you've heard it. Stalin is addressing a crowd in Red Square, boasting that he has received a congratulatory telegram from Trotsky. He reads: "Stalin. You were right, and I was wrong. You are the true heir of Lenin. I must apologise. Trotsky." Then a little Jewish tailor pipes up from the front row, "Comrade Stalin, I do not think you read that telegram in a way that conveys its historical importance." So Stalin says, "Comrades, here is a common man who wishes to read that telegram to you -- please, come to the podium." The tailor steps up, takes the telegram, goes to the microphone and says, "Stalin. You were right, and I was wrong? You are the true heir of Lenin? I must apologise? TROTSKY!" SignatureJames > Quoth JimboCat <103134.3516@compuserve.com>, and I quote: > [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > microphone and says, "Stalin. You were right, and I was wrong? > You are the true heir of Lenin? I must apologise? TROTSKY!" Reminds me of the exercise you can do with the phrase, What is this thing called love? ___ What? Is this thing called love? What *is* this thing called love? What is *this* thing called, love? What is this *thing* called, love? What is this thing *called*, love? What is this thing called? Love??? Signature³Don't water it down! You always water it down! Well, don't! Just don't!² - Mary Albinson > I just sent an email in which I said "Do I ever know *that* feeling!" > > The sense is obviously an exclamation, but does the word order make it a > question? What you want is an interrobang. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang SignatureJohn Varela Trade NEWlamps for OLDlamps for email John Varela filted: >> I just sent an email in which I said "Do I ever know *that* feeling!" >> [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang Or maybe a percontation point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark#Rhetorical_question_mark ....r SignatureA pessimist sees the glass as half empty. An optometrist asks whether you see the glass more full like this?...or like this? > John Varela filted: > > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark#Rhetorical_question_mark Very good. How did you find that? SignatureJohn Varela Trade NEWlamps for OLDlamps for email John Varela filted: >> John Varela filted: >> > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >Very good. How did you find that? From your own Wiki link to the interrobang, I followed the "irony mark" link in the "Punctuation" sidebar under "uncommon typography"....r SignatureA pessimist sees the glass as half empty. An optometrist asks whether you see the glass more full like this?...or like this? Matthew Cope: > > I just sent an email in which I said "Do I ever know *that* feeling!" > > > > The sense is obviously an exclamation, but does the word order make it a > > question? John Varela: > What you want is an interrobang. No, that's for sentences that really are both a question and an exclamation. ObInterrogation: "Was that when you shot the clerk?" "I shot the clerk?!" --My Cousin Vinny (1992), by Dale Launer, quote from memory SignatureMark Brader "It is considered a sign of great {winnitude} Toronto when your Obs are more interesting than other msb@vex.net people's whole postings." --Eric Raymond My text in this article is in the public domain. |
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