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Kooyeen

#393680 Wed, 18 Jul 07 08:10 PM

CalifJim wrote:

Why does only have to have scope over Marika?

The more words that could potentially be within the scope of only (because it's been moved left so much), the more ambiguity the sentence contains.

Because that's the part I would stress. If you want "only" to refer to something else, you have to change the stress.

So what's the conclusion? I find it hard to believe that "decide" is just an exception... and the only exception that crosses my mind now. You really can't say "I only decided to buy the tires from Marika, Mike will give me the wheels," instead of "I decided to buy only the tires from Marika, Mike will give me the wheels"?

Or should I split some infinitives? "Just" sounds good in the middle of an infinitive, for example. But "only" doesn't sound the same.
I really can't understand... Thanks Smile [:)]

Kooyeen

Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005

Italy

Senior Member (3,973)

If you don't have a sense of humor already, it's about time you buy one.

CalifJim

#393683 Wed, 18 Jul 07 08:14 PM

I was imagining them as written. I was imagining all of them without any particular voice stress. In spoken form, if you stress the word that goes with only, you can put the only just about anywhere. I think the default is to feel the stress on the last element of the sentence, however, so even without any stress, I think most people will feel that that last element is the one that goes with only.

But with certain verbs that take infinitives or gerunds as complements ...

I only promised to bring the steaks.

It's ambiguous -- unless you use intonation.

In writing you might have to provide the contrasting phases to make it clear:

I only promised to bring the steaks -- not the potato salad.
I only promised to bring the steaks -- not to cook them.

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (16,975)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Gerunds, Intonations, Verbs

Kooyeen

#393690 Wed, 18 Jul 07 08:27 PM

Aaaaargh! We've been posting for nothing! We've been wasting space on the servers! Stick out tongue [:P]

LOL, anyway, I'm glad there are no exceptions! Yes, in most of my threads (more than 95%) I ask about spoken English. I often try to say explicitley that what I'm loking for. Sorry, maybe it wasn't clear.
As I said earlier in this thread, I recently discovered that spoken English is the basic variety, and written English is something extra. So learners should learn spoken English first (speaking + listening), and written English later (writing + reading). As far as I know, most teachers don't follow that method. I wish I had started learning English that way. And I wish I was able to learn English that way, lol.

Anyway, thank you so much for your support. It took some posts, but it's the result that matters. Wink [;)]

Kooyeen

Learn English, Learning English

CalifJim

#393698 Wed, 18 Jul 07 08:40 PM

We've been wasting space on the servers!

Don't worry. It's only a venial sin.

CJ

CalifJim

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