"I cannot emphasize"

[Robin Hamilton]

> but here's a complication.  the following is fine for me as an
> emphatic utterance:
>
>   I can't TELL you how complicated this problem is.  '(I'm telling
> you that) this problem is very complicated'
>
> (and could serve as a model for the sort of example we've been talking
> about).  here there's no unspoken element like "too much".
...
>
> arnold

I wonder if there possibly *is a suppression here -- "I can't [begin to]
tell you how complicated ..."

Robin

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