The sentence here reminded me of the oddness of the floating modifier “only” in English language construction. Obviously there the sentence “urine is only sterile in your bladder” doesn’t mean literally that “urine is merely sterile in your bladder,” but we understand the “only” to modify “your” (which of course means “one’s” or “a person’s” as I jokingly nit-pick in that thread). Once upon a time, to demonstrate some point about precise syntax, I wrote the following sentences on the blackboard in a freshman English class:
Only I can create art.
I only can create art.
I can only create art.
I can create only art.
I can create art only.
I asked my students if all of these had the same meaning. Operating from a common sense perspective, rather than applying any hard and fast rule, I think the sentence’s meaning changes depending on the placement of the “only,” but we all agreed that most people would find the precise meaning somewhat ambiguous and would finally rest on tone and context. But technically, doesn’t “only” modify the word it appears in front of? As in:
“Only I can create art” means that I am a terrible egotist who thinks himself the only artist in the universe.
“I only can create art” means that I have the ability to create art but cannot apply that ability in practice.
“I can only create art” means that my creative abilities exist but other related abilities, like the ability to appreciate or criticize or display art is lost to me.
“I can create only art” means that while art is within my creative capacities, I cannot create other things, such as cooking or legal opinions.
I’m not sure what “I can create art only” would mean.
Are you of the school that applies logic when you hear “only”? Or are you of the “whatever, dude, you know what I’m saying” school?
Writing derives from speech, not the other way around. In speech, in all you examples, the meaning is clear based on stress. In written form, it’s ambiguous. For example, I don’t agree with your second sentence’s explanation. I read it the same as the first.
In short, there’s no way to write stress into a sentence, but it’s clear in speech. So you’ve got to rely on the reader’s good sense.
Oh man, we’re having English classes in threads now. :eek:
Obviously I didn’t pay enough attention to them before.
I obviously didn’t pay enough attention to them before.
I didn’t pay enough attention to them before obviously.
Are we being graded for our posts?
*could the lessons be more basic please. . . see above.
English a positional languge. “Dog bites man” means something complete different than “Man bites dog.”
“Only” does give a sentence a different meaning depending on where it is put. Now, in spoken sentences, you can cut the speaker some slack – sometimes the sentence comes out before the words are in place. But in written English, it’s impossible to tell what someone means if they misplace “only.”
The example sentence I have heard for demonstrating this is “I punch Walter Cronkite in the nose.”
Only I punch Walter Cronkite in the nose.
I only punch Walter Cronkite in the nose.
I punch only Walter Cronkite in the nose.
I punch Walter Cronkite only in the nose.
I punch Walter Cronkite in only the nose.
I punch Walter Cronkite in the only nose.
I punch Walter Cronkite in the nose only.
I basically agree with IntelSoldier, but I think that there are limits to how you can place the only, depending on the meaning, even in speech. If someone wanted to say that they punch Walter Cronkite in the nose but in no other part of his body, they would not use the first, third, or sixth arrangements in my list. No stress pattern would make those sound correct for that meaning.
[snooty artiste] This is because you are Philistine swine and unable to understand what true art is. Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to smear oatmeal and broken eggshells on this sink.[/snooty artiste]
