Timeline for What, exactly, is the point of beginning a sentence with "Well..."?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
28 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 26, 2018 at 11:25 | review | Close votes | |||
| Aug 28, 2018 at 16:44 | |||||
| Mar 21, 2016 at 12:57 | comment | added | Hot Licks | "What does 'well' actually add to the body of the sentence?" Without it, the quoted sentence is dead and lifeless. | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 10:55 | history | protected | tchrist♦ | ||
| Mar 21, 2016 at 10:32 | answer | added | Muhammad Kamran Shahid | timeline score: 1 | |
| Oct 20, 2015 at 9:09 | answer | added | Bill Swan | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jul 27, 2015 at 15:36 | answer | added | bdsl | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jul 27, 2015 at 14:54 | answer | added | Taomerline | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jul 12, 2015 at 20:14 | comment | added | Greg Lee | Well, why not? . | |
| Jul 12, 2015 at 19:41 | answer | added | Taomerline | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 1, 2015 at 22:06 | comment | added | WS2 | French has a very similar expression eh bien. If we didn't have well, how would we translate eh bien? | |
| Mar 10, 2015 at 19:22 | answer | added | Micahld | timeline score: -2 | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 22:59 | answer | added | Grace | timeline score: 6 | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 22:51 | history | reopened |
Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Hugo p.s.w.g MetaEd RegDwigнt |
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| Aug 10, 2013 at 21:56 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | Along with snailboat's 4 usages (I'd use 'hedge' for 'face-threat mitigator') one needs Marc's second usage and the modal (Collins sense 3a) usage where one is indicating that the opinion offered should be taken as a personal judgement rather than gospel. | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 21:16 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| Aug 10, 2013 at 22:56 | |||||
| Aug 10, 2013 at 20:59 | comment | added | Cerberus - Reinstate Monica | @JeffSahol: Oops! Missed that chance... | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 16:10 | history | closed | RegDwigнt | Duplicate of Garbage/stuff words | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 15:27 | comment | added | James Waldby - jwpat7 | Also see Why am I always compelled to begin a response with “Well,“?, | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 15:23 | history | edited | James Waldby - jwpat7 |
edited tags
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| Aug 10, 2013 at 14:26 | comment | added | JeffSahol | @Cerberus, even better: "Snailboat's categories sound...well, sound" | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 12:59 | answer | added | Julie | timeline score: 0 | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 5:14 | answer | added | Marc | timeline score: 1 | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 3:15 | comment | added | Cerberus - Reinstate Monica | @oscilatingcretin: In your example, I think it rather prefaces disagreement, or possibly also a partial answer. Snailboat's categories sound...sound. | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 2:58 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | It is more than just a gap-filler, though. Without it, your example sentence would read as quite curt and brusque. ‘Well’ adds a certain softening to the sentence. This makes it all the more important in writing than in speech, because writing cannot rely on intonation and non-verbal communication to relay that information; it must be done verbally. | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 2:46 | comment | added | oscilatingcretin | Ah, the last part pretty much sums up my theory: "and, as a pause filler, it bridges interactional silence". I added commas where they belong =D. | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 2:45 | comment | added | user28567 | This abstract has a summary: The discourse marker well has four distinct uses in Modern English: as a frame it introduces a new topic or prefaces direct reported speech; as a qualifier it prefaces a reply which is only a partial answer to a question; as a face-threat mitigator it prefaces a disagreement; and as a pause filler it bridges interactional silence. | |
| Aug 10, 2013 at 2:40 | history | edited | tchrist♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 4 characters in body
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| Aug 10, 2013 at 2:36 | history | asked | oscilatingcretin | CC BY-SA 3.0 |