"I never said she ate my sandwich" has seven meanings depending on which word you stress

boing
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Originally published at: "I never said she ate my sandwich" has seven meanings depending on which word you stress | Boing Boing

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The emphasis on the fifth word offers some intriguing possibilities.

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Thanks for a great reminder to stop and think before assuming something negative from a tweet or online post. Nuance doesn’t stop existing because we jump to conclusions based on our own personal biases.

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meanwhile, the video/audio is out of sync.
This Means Something.

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It’s also why being able to use a few formatting characters can vastly improve -text- communications as well…

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There were a few people at work that I had a hard time explaining things to. So I got up from desk and went for a little walk. Got things straightened out and had a nice little break from the screen.

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Or just use the formatting options.

“I never said she ate my sandwich”
“I never said she ate my sandwich”
“I never said she ate my sandwich”
“I never said she ate my sandwich”
“I never said she ate my sandwich”
“I never said she ate my sandwich”
“I never said she ate my sandwich”

But, without emphasis, what does the sentence mean?
  • “I never said she ate my sandwich”
  • “I never said she ate my sandwich”
  • “I never said she ate my sandwich”
  • “I never said she ate my sandwich”
  • “I never said she ate my sandwich”
  • “I never said she ate my sandwich”
  • “I never said she ate my sandwich”
0 voters
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And yet, whichever way you say it, seven different people will hear seven different things. Especially if it’s during a meeting.

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Maybe she should just label her food with her name and be done with all the petty accusations.

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A friend of mine once emailed a coworker asking for a copy of a document she needed. The coworker replied, “I resent that.” It took my friend a few minutes to realize the coworker meant “I re-sent that.”

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I once texted “No thank you!” when what I meant was “No, thank you”. Caused a bit of a problem until I realized the misunderstanding.

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https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/00d34e6b-87fa-49c9-bb2d-9b970228ca21

We are the people.

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It’s also why being able to use a few formatting characters can vastly improve -text- communications as well…

Is that what you are accusing us of!

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image
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I’m sorry, but can’t really vote on this until we have agreed on a definition of “sandwich”.

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656×875 130 KB

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tenor

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This is why I stopped having Pandas over for dinner. I had a big guy over a few times, but he just eats, shoots, and leaves.

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I say it has an eighth meaning in which she never said the other woman ate her sandwich.

More importantly is the ninth meaning, in which every word is stressed.

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