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Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009Can I (Just) Say... ?
I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell often preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just say...?" I don't recall noticing it growing up in the UK, though it may well have been that it was so common that it never drew attention to itself, or I simply wasn't paying attention. Has it been around for a long time or is it a recent vogue? Either way, can I just say... t seems superfluous and meaningless to my N American ears. Are they asking permission to speak? Hardly. They're going to say what they have to say anyway... Is it a form of politeness?  SignatureWatch out for the random hedgehogs On 26 Apr 2009, MC wrote > I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell > often preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > speak? Hardly. They're going to say what they have to say > anyway... Is it a form of politeness? The latter; a set formulation rather than a request. It's similar to "I'm sorry to say that you're wrong on that point", where the speaker is anything but sorry to say that. SignatureCheers, Harvey CanEng and BrEng, indiscriminately mixed > On 26 Apr 2009, MC wrote > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > It's similar to "I'm sorry to say that you're wrong on that point", > where the speaker is anything but sorry to say that. I think it's also modernese for "Suffice it to say..." SignatureMike. Mike Lyle filted: >> On 26 Apr 2009, MC wrote >> [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > >I think it's also modernese for "Suffice it to say..." Appearances to the contrary, it's *not* the opposite of "It goes without saying that"....r SignatureA pessimist sees the glass as half empty. An optometrist asks whether you see the glass more full like this?...or like this? > Mike Lyle filted: >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Appearances to the contrary, it's *not* the opposite of "It goes > without saying that"....r Oh, my. You left out the "notwithstanding". >On 26 Apr 2009, MC wrote > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > >The latter; a set formulation rather than a request. I think I first met it as "May I say...?". >It's similar to "I'm sorry to say that you're wrong on that point", >where the speaker is anything but sorry to say that. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) >I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell often >preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just say...?" [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >N American ears. Are they asking permission to speak? Hardly. They're >going to say what they have to say anyway... Is it a form of politeness? For me it's another Monty Python allusion, from the Election Night Special: Eric Idle: "Can I just say that this is the first time I've been on television?" SignatureJames >>I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell often >>preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just say...?" [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] >Eric Idle: "Can I just say that this is the first time I've been >on television?" Was that Idle? I thought it was Not A Member Of The Team, that is, someone I have not seen before or since that sketch. I see that the script (via Wiki) credits the line to Idle but it's not him in this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU SignatureRichard Bollard Canberra Australia To email, I'm at AMT not spAMT. >>>I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell often >>>preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just say...?" [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU I remember it as being Eric Idle. I must have heard it on the record of the Drury Lane show. SignatureJames >>>>I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell often >>>>preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just say...?" [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] >I remember it as being Eric Idle. I must have heard it on the >record of the Drury Lane show. Not A Member Of The Team was probably a spur of the moment person on the telly and not around for Drury Lane. His anonymity suited the line, 'though. Wonder who he was? SignatureRichard Bollard Canberra Australia To email, I'm at AMT not spAMT. >>>>> I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell often >>>>> preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just say...?" [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > > Wonder who he was? It was Ian Davidson, who did appear in many Python sketches and got occasional name-checks on I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, followed by a shout of "Who?". He is also a writer and TV director who was a sort of half member of the team. SignatureDavid >>>>>> I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell often >>>>>> preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just say...?" [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] >shout of "Who?". He is also a writer and TV director who was a sort of >half member of the team. Ta. I'll re-name him Ian Sider then. SignatureRichard Bollard Canberra Australia To email, I'm at AMT not spAMT. > >Eric Idle: "Can I just say that this is the first time I've been > >on television?" [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU Can I just say that I was a member of the mountie chorus in the Lumberjack Song when Idle played the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal? (OB Python: Yes, Palin was the original lumberjack, but Idle did it too). And in a brief showbiz comeback a couple of years ago, I shared the stage with John Cleese... This is me attempting to do the Dead Parrot: http://snipurl.com/h4w40 SignatureWatch out for the random hedgehogs >> >Eric Idle: "Can I just say that this is the first time I've been >> >on television?" [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] >stage with John Cleese... This is me attempting to do the Dead Parrot: >http://snipurl.com/h4w40 Very good. Nothing like a bit of ritual humiliation. SignatureJames >>> >Eric Idle: "Can I just say that this is the first time I've been >>> >on television?" [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > >Very good. Nothing like a bit of ritual humiliation. At least he got of the stage intact. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) >At least he got of the stage intact. "off", or in some dialects "off of". SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) > >At least he got of the stage intact. > > "off", or in some dialects "off of". Cleese is back this summer and I have a request in to be humiliated again. SignatureWatch out for the random hedgehogs >> >At least he got of the stage intact. >> >> "off", or in some dialects "off of". > >Cleese is back this summer and I have a request in to be humiliated >again. I wish you the best and hope that you are successfully humiliated. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) > >> >At least he got of the stage intact. > >> [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > I wish you the best and hope that you are successfully humiliated. It was the thrill of a lifetime to do that with Cleese. He's a stickler for rehearsal and I got to see a lot of him over the course of a week. He is unfailingly pleasant to the "little people" like me (I'm not an actor - as must be apparent), and treated the pros with a shortage of patience. He went out of his way to spend time with us actively avoided the self-important showbiz types. And... How many people in the world have appeared on stage with him doing even a part of the Dead Parrot sketch - let alone imitated *him* doing it? I suspect I may be the only one to do that. And he did approve of the vocal impersonation... SignatureWatch out for the random hedgehogs >> >> >At least he got of the stage intact. >> >> [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >doing it? I suspect I may be the only one to do that. And he did approve >of the vocal impersonation... You were very good, and congratulations are in order. And your story certainly beats my story about performing with Douglas Adams and not realising until thirty years later that it was *the* Douglas Adams, by which time he was dead and I had long forgotten the name of the guy who ran the revue and what he looked like. So John Cleese was pleasant? I'm glad to hear that. I remember seeing him on some quiz show on the theme of places in Britain where he was extremely surly and went out of his way to be unpleasant. This was after Monty Python had done their last show on television, but before Fawlty Towers. I later wondered if he wasn't trying out the Basil character. Does anyone else remember that quiz programme? SignatureJames > So John Cleese was pleasant? I'm glad to hear that. Very. Gracious. Had time for fans. he had a lot on his plate with the entire show, not just that sketch, and every day he would take a moment to have a little personal chat with each of the extras in turn - curious about what each of us did in real life. Like a lot of comics he's not "on" all the time, but he did tell a couple of funny stories about life on the road. I didn't want to be crass and shove an autograph book in his hands, but I do have a big coffee table book about the Pythons and I asked his assistant if a signature would be possible - and it was. Idle was a little less approachable - simply because he had only a day in which to rehearse and you don't want to break anyone's concentration in that situation. But he was fantastic on stage, and the timing of the Lumberjack Song was priceless. The show had apparently ended and some people were leaving the theatre and then Idle proclaimed, "I never wanted to host a comdy show. I wanted to be a lumberjack!" The place erupted. Mounties and lumberjacks - in Montreal? It was a complete thrill to march on stage in the uniform chanting the chorus, and to be hit with a wave - I'd say it was palpable - of cheers. I've also met Palin (as nice as he comes across), Jones (a little reserved) and Chapman shortly before he died (bizarre, and not in a funny way). SignatureWatch out for the random hedgehogs > >And in a brief showbiz comeback a couple of years ago, I shared the > >stage with John Cleese... This is me attempting to do the Dead Parrot: > >http://snipurl.com/h4w40 > > Very good. Nothing like a bit of ritual humiliation. Which is why so many people come here. SignatureWatch out for the random hedgehogs > I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell often > preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just say...?" [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > N American ears. Are they asking permission to speak? Hardly. They're > going to say what they have to say anyway... Is it a form of politeness? Similar formulations have been noticed in the opposite direction: Grim Reaper: Shut up! Shut up you American. You always talk, you Americans, you talk and you talk and say 'Let me tell you something' and 'I just wanna say this', Well you're dead now, so shut up. [Monty P - meaning of life] > Watch out for the random hedgehogs Mushroom! SignatureOnline waterways route planner: http://canalplan.org.uk development version: http://canalplan.eu > I've noticed that the lads on Top Gear and now Simon Cowell often > preface statements with "Can I say...?" or "Can I just say...?" > I don't recall noticing it growing up in the UK, though it may well have > been that it was so common that it never drew attention to itself, or I > simply wasn't paying attention. Has it been around for a long time or is > it a recent vogue? > Either way, can I just say... t seems superfluous and meaningless to my > N American ears. Are they asking permission to speak? Hardly. They're > going to say what they have to say anyway... Is it a form of politeness? These constructions (and the others in the other posts have various forms, but they all have one thing in common, as you pointed out: They are all polite requests for the floor. Either they are entreaties -- e.g, formal imperatives with 'Let/Allow me' (logically contradictory but pragmatically effective) -- or they are requests in a number of polite modes (usually using modals to increase politeness, whence may, can, could, etc.); the politeness in all these cases comes from taking measures to avoid threatening anyone's face on record. In either mode, they indicate the speaker's desire, conventionally expressed, to make a contribution to the discourse, while still showing respect for others' face. Modals are good this way (think "subjunctive" and "counterfactual") because they automatically distance the speaker from the real world and provide what's called "plausible deniability" in legal circles. This is, BTW, something like the way these constructions might be analyzed in the linguistic subfield of Pragmatics, where Politeness Theory uses the concept of "Face" rather extensively. See the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politeness_theory -John Lawler http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue Don't anthropomorphize computers. They hate that. |
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