Semantics? Negative connotation?
Ron wrote: Yay!!! You had me worried with the topic title, I didn't expect such good news! That was a rewrite from what I originally wrote: Quote: Yay!!! You had me worried with the topic title, I was expecting bad news!
I changed it because I thought that the first sentence had a negative feel to it. When I asked Joan (who, during the day, sits across the desk from me) which she preferred, she liked the first and thought that the second had a negative sound to it!!! I find that hillarious, and wonder if it's a guy/gal thing, or something else. So, let's open it up "for debate" and as a poll. Which do you prefer? Why? (If you have another option that you think I should add to the poll, let me know quickly!) |
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| I don't think there is much difference, not anything anyone would notice, but to make a choice I would agree with Joan, the first sounds less negative. |
| I agree that they would both work. But I also agree that the first one sounds a little more positive.
Bentley's Mom |
| for me the 1st one sounded better. |
| I also liked the first one better. Both would be fine, though. |
Ron wrote: In another thread on the forum, I responded to someone's post about Jasper's visit to the vet. Here's what I posted:
Ron wrote: Yay!!! You had me worried with the topic title, I didn't expect such good news! That was a rewrite from what I originally wrote: Quote: Yay!!! You had me worried with the topic title, I was expecting bad news! I changed it because I thought that the first sentence had a negative feel to it. When I asked Joan (who, during the day, sits across the desk from me) which she preferred, she liked the first and thought that the second had a negative sound to it!!! Hmmmm, I wrote this ambiguously. When I said "I thought the first sentence had a negative feel, *I* was referring to the one I had originally written, which was, of course, the second sentence in my post. Shheeeeeeeesh... now I'm sure I've confused everybody.... Notice that I said I posted the top line, which was a rewrite of the bottom line. Joan actually preferred the sentence with the word "bad" in it, which was the first one I wrote, but was the second one in the post. Maybe I should rewrite the question! <headshake> I confuse people sometimes. Ok, so here goes: "When I asked Joan (who, during the day, sits across the desk from me) which she preferred, she liked the sentence with the word "bad" in it, and thought that the sentence with the word "good" in it had a negative sound." Ok, NOW who agrees with who? lol I assume the poll is correct since the question was explicit? |
hehe...sorry to scare you with my post 
They both sounded fine to me, but I think the first one was better? |
LOL, well the one with the words "good news" is the one I prefer...  |
| Glass half full, glass half empty. It really depends on what you wanted to portray as they are both correct. The first is more positive than the second and therefor most people would think it sounds better.
The second sentence sounds more pessimistic but, as they say... The good thing about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being pleasantly surprised or proven right! |
| Ron,
LOL, you confused me even more now.... I like this wording best: "Yay!!! You had me worried with the topic title, I didn't expect such good news!" Still though, both are fine. 
Stormi and co. |
| Hi Ron,
Like the others my vote would be for the first one. Now we know why English is so difficult to master for those that don't have it as their first language. I used to teach ESL (English as a Second Language) to adults whom had degrees in their own countries. I've also taught children whom seem to master it easier. Just think of all our idoyms that we use daily and you get an idea of how literally it could be taken by those learning the language. I'm tickled pink I feel blue I'm green with envy I'm feeling green (Colorful language indeed!) It's at the tip of my tongue I want to butter you up ( I once said this in class and the students looked for the butter.) 
I'm going to blow my stack I feel like blowing up I wish that person would get off my back or My girlfriends and I went out last night ( In some Latin American countries they don't differentiate between sexes so if you mention you went out with girlfriends they assume you are gay.) This happened to me as well when I was chatting with the class about what I had done the previous night. In all seriousness most of us in North America never study grammar but for the basics in high school while those in other countries studying English know grammar rules better than us. We just speak it and often can tell if something sounds funny to us. I mean who the heck knows what Past Perfect Present Tense means? (There are actually 8 of these rules.) It was a mind boggling experience for me and rather humorous as I was asked once to sub for a mere 2 days teaching advanced English Grammar. Those that know me chuckled as I am forever making gramatical and spelling errors. I'm sometimes horrified to reread a post I've previously made and see the errors. Yikes! The class was 3 hours long...groaners. The second day I decided to bring in my magic to class and soon the students were laughing and talking. The director walked in and I thought Oops I'm in trouble. Instead they offered me a full time job as most foreign students know the grammar very well but are too shy to speak. I ended up teaching the Transportation Minister of one country, Olympic Athletes, Lawyers, Doctors, and even King Fahad's grandson of Saudie Arabia. Okay you guys can stop laughing now as those that have seen my regular post know I have a typing virus in my computer..ha ha
Ah sorry I went off topic and took a trip down memory lane. Marianne and the boys |
| Thanks for bringing that up, Marianne! There's another point, too: Often innocent mistakes in grammar are made in a post that can lead to big misunderstandings.
I CLEARLY knew that I was typing about "the first message", while EVERYONE misunderstood what I MEANT. Technically, my language was correct -- I referred to the first message that I wrote but never published in the orginal message, but everyone assumed I was talking about the first message in THIS post, the first in this thread. I didn't make that mistake on purpose, but it seems to be very time appropriate around the forum nowadays. Please PLEASE everyone act on the forum as if you are sitting having a cup of tea with your neighbor (of whom you know very little) at your kitchen table. Assume any small faux pas are just innocent mistakes. Assume the posters meant no insult. And everyone please try to write your posts in a gentle, non offensive way. Thanks so much for making this forum a gerat place! Even when my language skills falter! |
| Your post was very interesting Marianne, it also reminded me of an email joke that was going around for a while with all the letters mixed up, stating that people with English as their first language have no trouble reading a sentence of completely mixed up words as long as the first and last letter is in place. Some don't even notice right away that it is mixed up. |
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