Re: GG: So You Want to Write a . . . What??

["John P. Hill" <jphill@frank.mtsu.edu>]

Re:  "So, You Want to Write a Fugue?"

Yes, that's an interesting phrase in English, because there
could be an implied "subtext" through how the sentence is
spoken.

As Joseph mentioned, there's an air of informality to it, but
also perhaps an implication that the person about to write
the fugue may have "bitten off more than (s)he can chew"...
(yikes...now a metaphor on top of subtext...).

When someone says "so...you want to write a fugue..."
there could be an implication of: "Well, that's not as easy
as you might think!" or "OK...but here's a few things to watch
out for...".  It's certainly a "leading" kind of statement and
GG seems to have been very good with implied subtext.

It's one of those expressions that can carry a lot of extra
meaning by *how* the speaker says it.  I've heard that in
Japanese, pitch inflections up or down can accomplish similar
shadings of meaning....true, Junichi?

jh


On Wed, 5 Feb 1997, Joseph Podlesnik wrote:

> Junichi:
> 
> So You Want to Write a Fugue is one of those strange and subtle English
> linguistic constructions, for it is a declarative statement at the same
> time that it is a question. I once saw a book for would-be medical
> students, titled "So You Want to be a Doctor?" It has an air of
> conversational informality to it. Perfectly natural that GG would
> informalize the very formal, rigid, musical form we call the fugue.
> 
> Gotta run. Hope this helped . . .
> 
> Joseph
> _____________________________________________________________
> 
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> 
>