What's that you say? [syntax]
An opinion article titled "Mattel and Margot Robbie's Barbie movie is not the film 2019 needs" has this passage:
Yet I don't think Mattel gives a tinker's cuss whether we're hating on Barbie or hitting her up for more plastic fantastic fun times so long as the controverting continues.
Because it's actually the oxygen of outrage — way more than the company's production of intersectional-feminism-Barbie and slightly-less-anorexic Barbie — that's keeping Barbie in the media and Mattel moving units.
What's that you say?
Being outraged that there's so much Barbie outrage is still playing straight into the evil one's tiny, Trump-ish hands? And Mattel still gets the money if we buy tickets to hate-watch instead of just watch-watch her new movie?
Oh God, excuse me for a moment.
HLEEAAHHHurkurkBLLEAAHH.
How do you analyze the underscored sentence? Specifically, what's the syntactic role of the clause 'you say'?
Top answer
I think it would have been clearer with a comma and final punctuation: What's that, you say?! The writer is imagining that after all the verbiage of the previous paragraph, the reader needs some kind of further clarification. The writer is putting words ( What's that?
- I think it would have been clearer with a comma and final punctuation: What's that, you say?!
- The writer is imagining that after all the verbiage of the previous paragraph, the reader needs some kind of further clarification.
- The writer is putting words ( What's that?
- ) into the mouth of the reader ( you ).
- Sometimes, What's that?
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I think it would have been clearer with a comma and final punctuation: What's that, you say?!
The writer is imagining that after all the verbiage of the previous paragraph, the reader needs some kind of further clarification. The writer is putting words (What's that?) into the mouth of the reader (you). Sometimes, What's that? means Can you repeat/explain t
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