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Hans51 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
"Don't you love me"
"Don't you love me"
I have learned that 'you' can be inserted for emphasis and I was wondering how we distinguish between negative interrogative sentences and emphasized sentences?
So does the example sentence can have two meanings like
1) "Don't you love me?"
2) "Don't you love me!"
And then intonation and context tell me the correct meaning, right? What do you native English speakers think?
Thank you so much as always and have a good day.
I have learned that 'you' can be inserted for emphasis and I was wondering how we distinguish between negative interrogative sentences and emphasized sentences?
So does the example sentence can have two meanings like
1) "Don't you love me?"
2) "Don't you love me!"
And then intonation and context tell me the correct meaning, right? What do you native English speakers think?
Thank you so much as always and have a good day.
Top answer
The second example is an imperative with the "you" added for emphasis or specificity. don't do X don't you do X don't dare do X don't you dare do X
- The second example is an imperative with the "you" added for emphasis or specificity.
- don't do X don't you do X don't dare do X don't you dare do X
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6 Answers
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The second example is an imperative with the "you" added for emphasis or specificity.
don't do X
don't you do X
don't dare do X
don't you dare do X
don't do X
don't you do X
don't dare do X
don't you dare do X
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In principle that structure has at least three possible meanings that can only be distinguished by intonation and context (or punctuation if written down). In your particular example. meaning (2) seems very unusual though. A more typical example of that exclamatory sense would be "Don't you look like your mother!". As well as the two you mention, a negative imperative is also possible, a typical e
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"You"can be inserted for emphasis.
Mother to child:
Don't touch that dial!
Don't you touch that dial!
Mother to child:
Don't touch that dial!
Don't you touch that dial!
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Oh, that would be the third meaning that I mentioned then. I may have them switched round compared to what Hans intended (though any sense of "Don't you love me!" seems rather unusual).
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In fact, just to wrap up that thought, both "don't" and "you" can add emphasis in this pattern, depending on meaning:
"You look just like your mother!" > "Don't you look just like your mother!"
"Don't talk to me like that!" > "Don't you talk to me like that!"
"You look just like your mother!" > "Don't you look just like your mother!"
"Don't talk to me like that!" > "Don't you talk to me like that!"
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GPYOh, that would be the third meaning that I mentioned then. I may have them switched round compared to what Hans intended (though any sense of "Don't you love me!" seems rather unusual).But possible.
e.g. Don't you love me! I am wicked through and through.
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