[ExI] You know what?

[Stefano Vaj]

On Jan 23, 2008 6:03 AM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> Has anyone besides me noticed a big increase over the last
> several years of the phrase "you know what?"   I hear it
> everywhere now.  Someone speaking will even interrupt
> himself or herself just to get it in.

You know what? I find it rather legitimate rhetorical device in oral
discourse. :-)

In fact, it has a precise meaning, which can be expanded: "And have
you considered, and can you imagine, what I am now going to tell you,
to your great surprise / enlightment / realisation? No, you did and
can not, but you are about to hear it". Ideally, some
attention-grabbing suspense should arise from such a statement...

What should be criticised is that in most speakers the repertorio of
such verbal tricks is horribly abused, monotonous, limited, boring,
even amongst professional presenters.

With regard to "I could care less", as a non-native English speaker, I
grok it to mean that in fact "I care to a non-negligible extent, my
level of care might be lower, in fact perhaps I care more than I
should", and cannot imagine any plausible reason, but for childish
confusion on double negatives and so forth, why and how it might
actually mean the opposite in everyday speech. What does Pinker say
about that? :-///

Stefano Vaj


is now going to happen