[lit-ideas] Re: Maybe Maybe
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 15:40:10 -0400
McEvoy:
"'It perhaps that she is a whore' is hardly more grammatical than
'perhaps, she may be a whore' - if it is grammatical at all. Nor is
redundancy by way of repetition ungrammatical or even always at all
times to be avoided or eschewed."
Yes. Thanks. There was a typo in my previous.
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.
"'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.
"It perhaps" doesn´t run. "It may be that she is a whore" does, because
"it" agrees with "may". But "perhaps" is a totally otiose construction
and so you cannot have "it" agree with it.
"Perhaps, she may be a whore" I find redundant.
"Perhaps she is a whore".
Or
"She is a whore, perhaps".
But surely it is redundant to use a modal "may" WITH "perhaps". The
whole POINT of "perhaps" is that the copula, even if in the indicative
mode, is like Geary´s "I am guessing she is supposed to be a whore"
(cfr. "I am guessing this is supposed to be a humorous insult" -- and
especially his reference to Fillmore).
McEvoy goes on to irritatingly quote from Fowler´s misuse of "identity":
P´rhaps = mabbe.
Identity of indescirnibles? Give me a break!
McEvoy ends his note with:
"Nor is redundancy by way of repetition ungrammatical or even always at
all times to be avoided or eschewed.""
I see.
But we have levels of acceptability:
She is a whore.
She may be a whore.
Maybe, she is a whore -- This usage is parenthetical. It can change
positions:
-- She, maybe, is a whore.
-- She is, maybe, a whore.
-- She is a, maybe, whore.
-- She is a whore, maybe. -- Then we have the combos with "p´rhaps"
-- P´rhaps she is a whore.
-- She p´rhaps is a whore.
-- She is p´rhaps a whore.
-- She is a p´rhaps whore.
-- She is a whore p´rhaps. -- Now this p´rhaps phrase induces a "it
happens" clause
-- She MAY happen to be a whore.
-- It may happen that she is a whore.
-- As it MAY happen she is a whore.
-- As it does happen, she MAY be a whore.
The per-haps is thus associated with "hap". Similary, a person to whom
things HAPpen, we call HAPpy.
In Italian we don´t have "perhaps". In France, they do:
Peut-etre elle est une putain.
Etc.
J. L. Speranza
Linguistic Botaniser
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
