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Emphasis markers

From:Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Date:Tuesday, July 25, 2006, 2:05
In English we can say "What are you doing?" or we can
replace the simple "what" with the emphatic "what" by
placing any one of a number of emphasis markers after
the pronoun "what". Examples include "the hell", "in
the world", "in the name of all that is holy", "in
blue blazes", and so on. E.G. "What in the sam hill
are you doing?" (What does "sam hill" mean, anyway?)

These emphasis markers don't parse out in any
meaningful way, but serve only as conventionalized
signs to mark the emphatic "what".

But couldn't the emphasis be marked on the verb just
as easily? It's not done this way in English, but
other languages might use verb marking for emphasis,
as in "What are you by the hairs of Gaknar's beard
doing?"

I'm curious to see how other conlangs have marked
emphatic forms. Do you use ephasis marking words or
does your language have a different, emphatic form for
some words? Which part of the sentence is marked?

--gary

Replies

Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
Sally Caves <scaves@...>
Dana Nutter <sasxsek@...>