style comparison

Question

(1)Do you not want to know who has taken it?  (Pride & Prejudice)(2)Don’t you want to know who has taken it?What's the difference? / What special effect has been made by (1)?

Ghost Writer · Accepted Answer

Formality and cognitive load.

Maple · Answer

Ghost WriterFormality and cognitive load.

What?

Do you mean I should imitate (1)'s pattern to be more polite?

Thanks

Ghost Writer · Answer

Depends on the context. Too much formality can seem pretentious.

Nona the brit · Answer

The first is rather more formal than anyone uses these days. Don't forget this is the dialogue of a 19th century aristocrat.

Ghost Writer · Answer

I talk like number one. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' alt='Emotion: wink'/>

Maple · Answer

Thank you two very much<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Nef · Answer

Maple
(1)Do you not want to know who has taken it? (Pride & Prejudice)

(2)Don’t you want to know who has taken it?

What's the difference? / What special effect has been made by (1)?

I agree with Nona. If I went around town saying # 1, people would look me strangely! Then it would take them a while to figure out what they thought I had said. Then they might wonder where I was from or why I sounded so (as GW said) pretentious. (Did I think I was Queen Victoria, maybe?)

# 2 is very common here (western US). Don't you want is used so often that, as a phrase, it is understood almost instantly. This is not the case for Do you not want. # 1 may be used more in other places.

I like Jane Austen, but I don't want to sound like one of her characters.

Maple · Answer

That is very helpful. Thank you<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

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