crane@fortune.UUCP (John Crane) (11/25/83)
Sometime at work listen to how many times you hear the following: Person A: What's this computer supposed to do? Person B: What this computer does is sort records. Now why couldn't person B just say: "This computer sorts records" or simply: "It sorts records"? Why the long wind up before the pitch? I hear people say this all the time and I'm wondering why they don't just get right to the point. I realize oral language is more informal than written language, but when you hear people start every sentance with: "What ....is is a ....." or "What ... does is it does ... ", etc. its just plain sloppy. A word I think is redundant is societal. What's wrong with the word social? They both mean "of or pertaining to society". Or do they? Am I missing some nuance or meaning here? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Will somebody please tell all the sportscasters in the world that tennis star Bjorn Borg pronounces his name "Byern BorrY" NOT "Byorn BorG". In Swedish, the final G is pronounced like the Y in berry. I thank you. Bjorn (with the butchered surname) thanks you.
liz@umcp-cs.UUCP (11/27/83)
One reason people repeat questions in answers (as in "What this computer supposed to do?" "What this computer does is sort records.") is to clarify what was said. For example, someone asks you about the computer, but you're not sure exactly what he said. You can make a guess, and since you're pretty sure you're somewhere in the right area, you go ahead and answer. But, you use some redundancy in the answer to confirm what you heard. Another reason is if you don't understand *why* someone is asking a question -- especially if you think they know the answer already. -Liz Allen -- Univ of Maryland, College Park MD Usenet: ...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz Arpanet: liz%umcp-cs@CSNet-Relay
ags@pucc-k (Seaman) (11/28/83)
Another reason that people repeat questions as part of their answers (perhaps unconsciously) is to give themselves time to think about the answer while repeating the question. Dave Seaman ..!pur-ee!pucc-k!ags
ix652@sdccs6.UUCP (12/03/83)
The construction: What this computer does is sort records is an example of what Higgins (1979) called a pseudo-cleft construction. He analysed these constructions as specifying a value or a set of values for a variable. Thus in the example above, the variable is "what this computer does", and the value is "sort records". Rather than being equivalent in meaning to their non-clefted counterparts, pseudo-clefts tend to have an "exhaustiveness implication" associated with them. Thus What I saw on the table was John's apple and Bob's orange has as an implication that I only saw 2 things on the table. Not so for the non-clefted I saw Johns's apple and Bob's orange on the table. Finally, pseudo-clefts can often be confused with the superficially similar free relative construction: Pseudo-cleft What John is is important to himself. Free Relative What John is is important to him. For more, see Higgins "the pseudo-cleft construction in English"