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Taka Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

To MrP: the feel of 'what'

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00 He asked me what I expected. 12blockquote
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00I know the sentence above is ambiguous:semantically, it could be either 02br
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00 He asked me the thing that I expected. 12blockquote
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00or 02br
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00 He asked me, 'What do you expect?' 12blockquote
10 . 02br
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00And I also know that the context is the determinant. 02br
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00My question is, again, what do you think the 'feel' of such 'what' is? What would come up to your mind when you hear such 'what' at first, without context? 0-
  

Top answer

) 02br 02br 00I'd be interested to hear what others think, though! 02br 02br 00MrP 0-

— MrPedantic

  • ) 02br 02br 00I'd be interested to hear what others think, though!
  • 02br 02br 00MrP 0-
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9 Answers
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0 Hello Taka 02br
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00I would hear it as #2: 'He asked me, What do you expect?' 02br
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00(For the sense of #1, I would have expected: 'He asked me what I expected him to'.) 02br
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00I'd be interested to hear what others think, though! 02br
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00MrP 0-
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0 Thank you, MrP. But that is not my question. I'm interested in the 'psychology' of 'what', not of the entire sentence. What kind of image do you have when you hear such 'what'? 0-
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0 Hi Taka, 02br
00I would have answered the same way Mr. P. just did. I'm not sure what you are looking for? 02br
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00If I try to stretch my interpretation of these few words a fair bit more, I might think 'he' has just been told that he disappointed me in some way, and now he is asking me 'in what way?' 02br
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00Or another view might be
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0 OK, let me explain what I'm asking. For example, when you hear 'to', you may have some sort of image---say, 'the core image'--- that it means 'in the direction of...', whether it's 'to go' or 'to you'. Now, I'm just interested in the core image of the word 'what' . What does the word 'what' bring to your mind? 0-
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0 I'm not sure whether there is any particular psychological feeling associated with "what". It is an interrogative. 02br
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00There are emotive words, which may engender different feelings in certain people, but I really don't think "what" is one of them, Taka. 02br
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00The only "core image" I have of the word "what" is that a question may follow it.
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0 Yes; when you try to think about 'what', it's suddenly empty: a flushed variable. 02br
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00It has a function, but not necessarily a meaning. 02br
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00MrP 0-
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0 No image? Really? 02br
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00Hmm...I thought it was 'something unknown' or something. 02br
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00MrP, what do you mean by 'a flushed variable'? 0-
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0 Hello Taka 02br
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00I was thinking of 'variable' in this sense (from Wikipedia): 02br
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00'In mathematics, a variable often represents an unknown quantity; in computer science, it represents a place where a quantity can be stored. Variables are often contrasted with constants, which are known and unchanging.' 02br
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00To 'flu
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0 If I consider it long and hard, I think I may almost understand! 0-
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