The power of Emphasis in language - Interesting Observation

in #language7 years ago

Hello fellow Steemians, its been nice reading all different blogs and getting to know the community better, thanks again for following and for your upvotes peeps! :) peace

Interesting Observation:


"I didn't say you stole the wallet" -

How would we interpret that statement?

The importance of emphasis on each word or phrase can determine what we could mean by what we say.

Example 1: If you put the emphasis on ''I" in the sentence - "I didn't say you stole the wallet," - you are saying that it wasn't him/her making the accusation that it was in fact someone else

Example 2. If you put the emphasis on 'didn't in the sentence -"I didn't say you stole the wallet"- you are saying that it wasn't him/her at all and that they are in complete denial of ever making the accusation

Example 3. If you put the emphasis on "say," in the sentence -"I didn't say you stole the wallet"- you are saying that they perhaps might not have said exactly that "you stole the wallet", however might have said something quite on the contrary, maybe borrowed it instead of stole it.

Example 4. If you put the emphasis on "you"in the sentence - "I didn't say you stole the wallet"- you are saying that it was not you" but it was someone else that stole the wallet.

Just learned this not long ago ... Interesting observation of how much emphasis on one word can really translate what we say differently depending on what emphasis is used also.
Any thoughts? please share in the comments. Your support means everything to me so thanks peeps :)
peace~

Sort:  

Congratulations @winkel! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of upvotes

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!