Timeline for "If you don't do it, I'll". Why does that sentence feel so awkward?
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| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Dec 20, 2012 at 15:36 | comment | added | user21497 | @J.R.: I couldn't say it, but I might write it, just for kicks. | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 15:35 | comment | added | user21497 | @StoneyB: Okay, I see what you mean now. "He hasn't been to Paris, but I've" is no good: It has to be "I have". Right. That's why I said there's got to be more to it than I said in my now-deleted answer and some comments. I just don't have time right now to do the necessary research. Usage isn't the problem here, but the specifics of the grammar are. I haven't unpacked my Quirk, Greenbaum, et al. yet, and I've been living here for more than 8 months. | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 15:29 | comment | added | J.R. | @BillFranke: So, you wouldn't say, "He isn't, but I'm"? Perhaps you wouldn't, but I'd. (just kidding, of course; I'd not say either of those, except to provide another example) | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 15:11 | comment | added | Jon Hanna | I think that it is indeed a matter of stress. The "bad" form in the question isn't technically incorrect, but it's weak. And the reason the sentence is weak, is that the contraction weakens a vital part of it - what the speaker will do. One of the advantages of contractions is they weaken less important parts of a sentence, but that is precisely why it's poor here. | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 15:09 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @BillFranke My point is that in haven't, don't and the like you've got a complete verb, not a contracted one - what's contracted is the not. | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 14:40 | comment | added | user21497 | @StoneyB: "He has, but I haven't" seems fine to me. "He isn't, but I'm" is impossible. | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 14:03 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @BillFranke You can't contract have or be terminally either. I think the rule is you have to have a formally complete verb, even if it's only an auxiliary; a contracted verb in any position demands completion to the right. | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 13:46 | vote | accept | RLH | ||
| Dec 20, 2012 at 13:30 | comment | added | user21497 | @Jez: It has to do with the contraction being at the end of the sentence. The stress can be anywhere in the sentence and it's still wrong to say "... but I'll." You can also stress the "I" in the sentence-final "I'll" and it's still wrong because it's at the end of the sentence. OTOH, I just found an answer to this Q on another site that says we can end sentences with contractions as long as the verb isn't the modal aux "will": eg, He does it, but I don't. = He does it, but I don't (do it). There's probably more to it. | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 13:23 | comment | added | Jez | @BillFranke Actually your second example suggests that this answer isn't quite right. In the case of "I'd go...", you can indeed stress the contraction I'd and get emphasis on the "I". So why doesn't that apply to I'll? Well, it does at the beginning of a sentence ("I'll go..."). So it looks like it's really to do with sentence location that causes the problem, not the contraction. | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 13:18 | comment | added | user21497 | I don't think that this has anything to do with sentence stress, just the stress patterns in the sentences in the answer. "Don't go in there" means exactly the same thing as "Do not go in there": stress is on the negative. And "I'd go to the store, but..." means the same thing as "I would go..., but...", but the stress is on "I" more than on "would" in the contracted form, so the sentence is responding to a different complaint: "Why do I have to go?" instead of "Why don't you go to the store (now)?" | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 13:09 | comment | added | RLH | I get it. That makes perfect sense, however, "Don't go in there." doesn't at all feel incorrect. This is probably because I was born and raised in the South-East US where if you can contract it, you should at least try to. ;) | |
| Dec 20, 2012 at 13:05 | history | answered | JSBձոգչ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |