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Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:00 am
Post subject: Nonetheless... vs ..nonetheless.. |
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Hi,
With the following 3 sentences:
"If you are nonetheless certain that your dog was murdered..."
"If you are, nonetheless, certain that your dog was murdered..."
"Nonetheless, if you are certain that your dog was murdered..."
do they convey different meanings? Are they different in tones in any
way?
Cheers,
Michael
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Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:30 pm
Post subject: Re: Nonetheless... vs ..nonetheless.. |
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dayzman@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | Hi,
With the following 3 sentences:
"If you are nonetheless certain that your dog was murdered..."
"If you are, nonetheless, certain that your dog was murdered..."
"Nonetheless, if you are certain that your dog was murdered..."
do they convey different meanings? Are they different in tones in any
way?
Cheers,
Michael
|
THIS is a difficult one. My instict tells me that these examples are
very close in meaning but that there could be, in some contexts, a
slight difference of emphasis between them. In parrticular, I think the
third example, by virtue of the implied pause after "Nonetheless",
brings out more than the other two the controversy implied by the
sentence, i.e.that there is doubt over whether the dog was "murdered"
but that the dog owner believes strongly that his dog was indeed
maliciously killed. Imagine, for example, a scene where a lawyer is
advising his client:
"Frankly, I do not think you have any chance of winning this case.
Nonetheless, if you are certain that your dog was murdered, then I
should be happy to represent you."
But can a dog be murdered? "Murder", surely, is only used
conventionally when referring to people.
Roger |
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Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 4:41 pm
Post subject: Re: Nonetheless... vs ..nonetheless.. |
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Adverbs come in several flavors:
.. simple - they directly modify a verb's sense;
.. "paramodifiers" - they further qualify some other modifier (adjective
or other adverb); and,
.. "sentence" (a misnomer) - they qualify an entire clause.
In this case, "nonetheless" is a "sentence adverb", and so can be
placed pretty much anywhere plausible: the difference will be a subtle
one of emphasis, rather than a gross shift in meaning.
--
So it is, truly.
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Raymond S. Wise
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 11:13 pm
Post subject: Re: Nonetheless... vs ..nonetheless.. |
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rogertidy@yahoo.com wrote:
[...]
| Quote: | But can a dog be murdered? "Murder", surely, is only used
conventionally when referring to people.
Roger
|
While I would not expect a lawyer to refer to a dog as having been
murdered, the owner very well might. There is an established sense of
the verb "murder" which applies. From the entry for "murder[2]" in the
*Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary* at www.m-w.com :
"2 : to slaughter wantonly : SLAY"
One sense of "wanton" is ""having no just foundation or provocation."
--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com |
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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 11:29 pm
Post subject: Re: Nonetheless... vs ..nonetheless.. |
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Raymond S. Wise wrote:
| Quote: | rogertidy@yahoo.com wrote:
[...]
But can a dog be murdered? "Murder", surely, is only used
conventionally when referring to people.
Roger
While I would not expect a lawyer to refer to a dog as having been
murdered, the owner very well might. There is an established sense
of
the verb "murder" which applies. From the entry for "murder[2]" in
the
*Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary* at www.m-w.com :
"2 : to slaughter wantonly : SLAY"
One sense of "wanton" is ""having no just foundation or
provocation." |
And you'll find it used for emotive force in literature. I remember
an example from Wilfred Thesiger's _Arabian Sands_. He made clear
that standard practice in need was to kill one of the camels for
food; but nevertheless when describing one such day of need he wrote
"we murdered [camel's name]", because of the close relationship
between camel and rider.
We find analogous uses of "rape", too. A dog-breeding book I've read
says that putting a dog to an unreceptive bitch "amounts to rape".
--
Mike. |
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