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It is condescending. It is inexpressibly annoying. It will make you want to masticate broken glass.
It is the emphatic auxiliary verb.
Let me give you a few examples. You will understand immediately.
We will say: "You need to get that report to me by 6 PM." But the disgusting, writhing, repulsive branch manager prefers to phrase himself thus: "Now, you do need to get that report to me by 6 PM, m'kay?"
We, who still have a modicum of natural feeling, who still have souls, who may call ourselves human, might say: "Don't be late again." But he, the centipede, the reptile, the basilisk, is heard to say, contra naturam: "Now, I would advise you not to be late again."
What is the term for this grating, this blood-curdling, this ghastly habitual use of emphatic auxiliary verbs?
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What is the term for this grating, this blood-curdling, this ghastly habitual use of emphatic auxiliary verbs?
I've always called this do + verb periphrastic construction the emphatic mood. (It doesn't bother me as much as it seems to you.) It's interesting that do is more or less required in present-day English when constructed the unmarked negative indicative: I write books, I don't write books (~ I write not books). I have a friend who habitually uses this construction instead of the simple past tense: I did read that book. It used to confuse me, until I realized he probably picked this up while learning English in school as a way to avoid past tenses of irregular verbs. (I have since noticed other Germans using this construction.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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What is the term for this grating, this blood-curdling, this ghastly habitual use of emphatic auxiliary verbs? It's at least close to passive-aggressiveness. I think there may be a psychological term that fits better, but I can't recall what it is and I've long since thrown out my old textbooks.
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I've long since thrown out my old textbooks. you threw out books? *gasp*
formerly known as etaoin...
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What is the term for this grating, this blood-curdling, this ghastly habitual use of emphatic auxiliary verbs? Uhhh... emphasis?
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You do need to be more specific Myridon. And I am going to need a better answer than that. You will need to try a little harder.
M'kay?
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you threw out books?
*gasp* Much more exciting to dispose of books by incineration.
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you threw out books?
*gasp* Much more exciting to dispose of books by incineration. do tell. - joe (do tell!) friday
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I would suppose to suggest to you that my thinking upon the subject does prod me to reveal unto you that any supposed use, habitual or otherwise, of emphatic auxiliary verbs is called emphasis whether one being self-governing does choose or does otherwise allow oneself and/or others to be thereby frequently annoyalated, seemingly begrated upon, or acurdled hemaphatically.
Does that answer better answer the question that one did proffer to ask?
Last edited by Myridon; 10/24/07 08:26 PM.
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*gasp*
Well, they were 20+ years old. Just slightly out of date.
I figured if I hadn't so much as cracked one open in all that time, I was never going to. Threw out all my term papers and class notes, too.
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