Timeline for What does "it" refer to in "sweated it out"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
30 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 30, 2023 at 16:32 | comment | added | Lambie | Ngrams: FOUND INSIDE – PAGE 356 ... sweat out a lean period without going to pieces . Iowa State Federation of Labor · 1947 · Snippet view | |
| Dec 30, 2023 at 15:08 | comment | added | Lambie | @EdwinAshworth Writers trust what they know and have internalized. I took the idiom: "sweat it out" and gave it a direct object. This is allowable under English grammar rules. ELU stand for English Language Usage. Always counting on the "other" for what is "established" is a big problem on this site. Sometimes, "the other" is just one of us. | |
| Dec 30, 2023 at 14:17 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @Lambie The U in ELU stands for (established) usage. It's the distinctive of the site as compared with almost all other popular EL sites: the possibility, the requirement even, of offering valid data supporting the idiomaticity of various usages. If you wish rather to discuss inventive / questionable usages, there are many other sites far more suitable. | |
| Dec 30, 2023 at 1:11 | comment | added | Lambie | @TinfoilHat You didn't understand what I wrote. You wrote above: When you sweat it out, you endure a situation. Right. So, my sentence: John was sweating out all the ill feeling he felt towards the man who had cheated him of everything: wife, home and money. means John was enduring all the ill feeling etc. Perfectly reasonable. Many people here are not writers. That is typically the problem. | |
| Dec 30, 2023 at 1:07 | comment | added | Tinfoil Hat | @Lambie — Sweating it out has nothing to do with “detoxifying” here. | |
| Dec 30, 2023 at 0:39 | comment | added | Lambie | @EdwinAshworth Oh please, not everything is already written. That's the whole point of creativity. You seem to not understand that. | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 23:49 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jan 2 at 19:55 | |||||
| Dec 29, 2023 at 23:42 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @Lambie No Google results found for "sweated out the ill feeling". The odd one for "sweated out all the/my anger". None for "sweated out all the anxiety" / "sweated out all my anxiety". | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 23:37 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @Tinfoil Hat (1) Referential 'it' has to refer to some referent (by definition) and (2) the referent must be expressly specified in the text/speech somewhere. Perhaps you want to classify say ing-clauses / other nominals as different from NPs. | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 23:29 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | Does this answer your question? What does “it” refer to in this sentence? | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 23:01 | answer | added | alphabet | timeline score: 1 | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 20:07 | comment | added | Tinfoil Hat | @EdwinAshworth — I see. But I’m not quite sure I buy this: “referential it must correspond to a noun phrase” (or rather that it’s antecedent must be a noun phrase). | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 19:22 | comment | added | Barmar | There are other similar expressions, like "work it out" meaning to solve a problem. | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 19:06 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @Tinfoil Hat My first comment included << some might argue that this "it" is semi-referential or quasi-referential with 'it' referring to the [nasty] situation obtaining >> | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 18:42 | comment | added | Tinfoil Hat | When you sweat it out, you endure a situation (one that makes you anxious/sweat). So you could say that it is the situation. | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 17:30 | comment | added | Lambie | @EdwinAshworth John was sweating out all the ill feeling he felt towards the man who had cheated him of everything: wife, home and money. | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 16:19 | history | reopened |
Mari-Lou A Mitch Heartspring |
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| Dec 29, 2023 at 13:08 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @Mari-Lou Hits on searches for "sweated out the" have situations, not states of mind, as DOs. | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 13:07 | comment | added | Yosef Baskin | I believe the French "S'il vous plait" relies on a vague "it" or a situational one: If this pleases you = please. | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 13:06 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | According to Merriam-Webster "Sweat it out" is an idiom So, the dummy "it" substitutes "anxiety" "worry". There are many phrasal verbs and idioms that use "it" e.g. feel it in your bones, pack it in, take it easy etc. | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 13:06 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | 'How could we change "I sweated it out" so as to make its meaning more obvious like Amber's example?' would be better expressed 'What is another way to express "I sweated it out" ' that doesn't use "it"? // A paraphrase is "I endured the [stressful] situation" (so some might argue that this "it" is semi-referential or quasi-referential, with 'it' referring to the [nasty] situation obtaining; referential it must correspond to a noun phrase that actually appears). With "It's raining" and "Had it not been for Holmes, we would never have solved this case", "it" is clearly non-referential. | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 12:54 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| Dec 29, 2023 at 16:19 | |||||
| Dec 29, 2023 at 12:50 | history | edited | Mari-Lou A | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
very light copy editing, fixed typo
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| Dec 29, 2023 at 12:15 | history | edited | Nadirspam | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 92 characters in body
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| Dec 29, 2023 at 12:12 | history | edited | Nadirspam | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 479 characters in body
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| Dec 29, 2023 at 12:02 | history | closed |
FumbleFingers KillingTime DjinTonic |
Duplicate of What does "it" in "If it wasn't for Amber..." refer to? | |
| Dec 29, 2023 at 11:31 | review | Close votes | |||
| Dec 29, 2023 at 12:09 | |||||
| Dec 29, 2023 at 11:09 | comment | added | Stuart F | Compare I lost it. | |
| S Dec 29, 2023 at 11:01 | review | First questions | |||
| Dec 29, 2023 at 11:02 | |||||
| S Dec 29, 2023 at 11:01 | history | asked | Nadirspam | CC BY-SA 4.0 |