#E3 I DUNNO SERIES#
had a series of relevant LL posts a year ago: " Dinosaur Intonation" (), " Hummed 'I don't know'" (), and " More 'I don't know'" (). But "I don't know" is routinely reduced much, much further than that.
#E3 I DUNNO HOW TO#
(I would elaborate that, to my mind, it's perfectly acceptable to reduce the beginning of "They don't know how to communicate" to /'ðeɪ.də.noʊ/. But that's not something that happened to the verb "know" in general. and pronounced anywhere along a continuum from "I dunno" to "uh uh uh". What was once the compositional phrase "I don't know" has been lexicalized into an independent form, variously written "I dunno", "iono" etc. Why is that not "They dunno how to communicate"?īecause that sentence refers to a failure to know something it's based around the lexeme "know". Yesterday's 'Zits' strip seems apposite: Jeremy giving unambiguous feedback to his Mum. (Don't) know how is different vs (dun)no that?ĭoes Liz want to go back to school in just the same clothes as last year? Indecipherable answers to be taken as Yes. Why is that not "They dunno how to communicate"? Perhaps dunno5. The final frame No wonder parents don't get along with teenagers … They don't know how to communicate!!
In the deadening ennui of the concerns of the parental world, who has the energy for articulation? I would guess that here perhaps the "yes" sense would have a high-falling pitch on "know" (indicating "possibility"), and the "no" sense would have a (low-mid?) level contour and then falling on "know" (indicating "doubt"), and that again the contour alone, without the words, would suffice. There was a previous LLog post in the recent past on the intonation contour for the "shrugging" sense of "I don't know", where the contour alone (w/ a final rise) sufficed to express the intended meaning. Liz was actually about my age-so old enough to be a grandparent now.) (Seriously, it's been all reruns since 2008. Does anyone still read him?ĭoes anyone still read For Better or For Worse? Korzybski! I'm 70, so I understand this comment. The subscripts in the title remind me of Korzybski. Filed by Mark Liberman under Linguistics in the comics.And unfortunately there's no sound track, so those of us interested in the interpretation of prosody are left to speculate, even about our own methods of communication. I should be able to give a better answer to the "How do I tell which is which?" question, but I can't.
Speaking for myself, I identify with Liz in this exchange. Today's For Better or For Worse starts this way:
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