Tuesday, October 25, 2005

American English Pragmatics.

"I didn't mean to interrupt you " really means "I am about to leave"

"Well, I am going to let you go" really means "Let me go"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Referring to someone's religion or ethnicity as part of a statement about their actions, implies that whatever they did is characteristic of the community, not just the individual.

(e.g. "Muslim news reporter Ali Karim frequently writes stories that are biased against farm workers," implies that his identity as a Muslim caused his stories to be biased.)