Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

A question of intonation

10:27 / 29.09.03

It’s a wordy frustration I have today, an inability to write a sentence without the emphasis being somehow wrong.

So, without resorting to italics or bold or underlining, how do I write the sentence, ‘This is my father’s time.’ in such a way that it reads with my intended meaning? Oh, and on a grammatical tangent, should the full stop after 'time' be there? Or not?

What I want to say is: ‘The point here and now that I am occupying, this particular moment in time and the next one and the next one, all belong to my father. It’s his time, not mine.’ So with the sentence ‘This is my father’s time, should the emphasis should be on the ‘This’? And how do I force people to read it correctly? The same sentence could be read to mean ‘This is the time that my father will succeed’, or even an affirmation; ‘This time definitely belongs to my father.’

Do you see my problem? Should I just change the sentence? Am I overly complicating the issue?

Feel free to shift this thread if you think it belongs elsewhere.

10:32 / 29.09.03

I would have thought the correct emphasis would be on father's.

And if it's any consolation, I read it entirely as you intended. Presumably the context of the rest of the piece would hold it up. For example, if it was about you taking dad to the psychiatrist and someone else pushed in front of you and nicked your appointment, you'd be right to protest: "This is my father's time!"

10:33 / 29.09.03

I don't know that you can force people to read it one way or another. You could try using italics, but that's a bit clumsy. I don't know - if it really matters, try rewriting it, or further explaining in a second sentence.
As for the full stop, I'm not sure what you mean. In the post, you are quoting and discussing a whole sentence and so yes, it's fair enough to include it.

12:34 / 29.09.03

Cool that you read it the way I wanted Sax.

Ariadne, I always get foxed with fullstops in quoted sentences within sentences.

14:13 / 29.09.03

i read it as you wanted too.
i think it's fine, and maybe you have been looking at it too long.

I The Golden Dawn-nie Darko U

18:55 / 29.09.03

Ü never can make $ure that a reader or rec¡ever of a $¡gnal w¡ll †ran$la†e the way Ü ¡n†end.

Ýøur $en†{¡}ence is f¡ne.

Place the emphasi$ on Th¡$ and fa†her's with "Th¡$" $a¡d in $harp $er¡øu$ne§§ and "fa†her's" sa¡d with §ub†le drawn øu† førce.