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Perfect Stranger Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Movie English no. 2: "I'm going it alone tonight"
Howdy,
This time a quick sentence from Gran Torino, a wonderful Clint Eastwood's movie about an old, Korean war veteran who finds it hard to get along with anyone, even his own sons. Surprisingly he develops a friendly bond with a boy named Thao, a Korean expat living just next door from Walt Kowalski's (the main character) Anyway, because Thao is always bothered by his cousin's gang of thugs, Kowalski decides to deal with them once and for all. He locks Thao down in his basement because he doesn't want the boy to get involved, and says to him:
[That's why] I'm going it alone tonight!
Why did he say it ?
PS. If you could point out to any mistakes I have made, I'd be grateful, but I totally understand if you don't have time .
This time a quick sentence from Gran Torino, a wonderful Clint Eastwood's movie about an old, Korean war veteran who finds it hard to get along with anyone, even his own sons. Surprisingly he develops a friendly bond with a boy named Thao, a Korean expat living just next door from Walt Kowalski's (the main character) Anyway, because Thao is always bothered by his cousin's gang of thugs, Kowalski decides to deal with them once and for all. He locks Thao down in his basement because he doesn't want the boy to get involved, and says to him:
[That's why] I'm going it alone tonight!
Why did he say it ?
PS. If you could point out to any mistakes I have made, I'd be grateful, but I totally understand if you don't have time .
Top answer
Perfect Stranger Why did he say it ? The "it" is totally vacuous of meaning. It is simply part of the idiom.
- Perfect Stranger Why did he say it ?
- The "it" is totally vacuous of meaning.
- It is simply part of the idiom.
- You might say that "going it" is like "doing it" in this idiom, and that "it" is therefore the task to be done.
- CJ
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9 Answers
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Perfect StrangerWhy did he say it ?The "it" is totally vacuous of meaning. It is simply part of the idiom.
You might say that "going it" is like "doing it" in this idiom, and that "it" is therefore the task to be done.
CJ
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"go it alone" is a set expression (see e.g. http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/go-it-alone).
The main comment I have about your other writing concerns the sentence "Surprisingly he develops a friendly bond with a boy named Thao, a Korean expat living just next door
The main comment I have about your other writing concerns the sentence "Surprisingly he develops a friendly bond with a boy named Thao, a Korean expat living just next door
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GPYlocks Thao down in his basementI parsed it differently.
(locks Thao) [ where? ] (down in his basement)
The phrasal verb "to lock down" didn't occur to me.
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CalifJimI parsed it differently.(locks Thao) [ where? ] (down in his basement)I agree, it can be parsed like that (and obviously that is what it is intended to mean). For me, though, it seemed a bit awkward because it made me think initially of "locking down Thao". Others may not find this.
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GPYFor me, though, it seemed a bit awkward because it made me think initially of "locking down Thao". Others may not find this.Right. It's always best to be on the lookout for unintended consequences like this. I would have missed this one.
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GPYMaybe it doesn't exist then!You can't be serious! I just checked Google for "to lock down" and got nearly 16 million hits!
I didn't check ALL of them, but most of them looked like they had the phrasal verb parsing.
CJ
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CalifJimYou can't be serious!Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that the expression "lock down" doesn't exist. I meant to suggest that problem of it intruding into the meaning may not exist if you didn't notice it.
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