[lit-ideas] Re: Maybe Maybe
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 14:24:04 -0700 (PDT)
--- On Tue, 11/5/10, jlsperanza@xxxxxxx <jlsperanza@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> I meant to write:
>
> "It may be ((two words)) that, maybe, she is a whore."
>
> NOT:
>
> "It maybe that maybe she is a whore."
>
> which indeed is ungrammatical.
In fact JLS wrote "It maybe that she is a whore".
> "'It perhaps that she is a whore' is hardly more
> grammatical than 'perhaps, she may be a whore' - if it is
> grammatical at all."
>
> Right. No. They are both ungrammatical.
'Perhaps, she may be a whore' is not ungrammatical.
Consider this exchange:-
'You are mad to marry her, Georgie. She may be a whore!'
'_Perhaps_, she _may be_ a whore. But, Barack my friend, what cares I!'
The _perhaps_ and _may be_ are not even redundant since their combination has
an implicature (sic) distinct from "She _may be_ a whore" alone.
Donal
Up to his ankles in the high seas of language
Handkerchief on head
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