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<p><font size=3>Dear John,<br>
<br>
> My colleague said "I feel you do not know the way to the faculty
<br>
> building." In my mind (not my heart) I flagged this up as a <br>
> collocational clash of "feel" with "know". As
a native English speaker I <br>
> would never use "feel" in this context, I would use "think"
or "believe" <br>
> to express my deduction. But then I thought, maybe for other native
<br>
> speakers of English it would be OK to say "I feel you do not
know the <br>
> way to the faculty building." Maybe it is a male/female thing.
The <br>
> Korean colleague who said this is female. Or another possibility is
that <br>
> it is a politeness thing. Maybe the person who said this is wanting
to <br>
> weaken the judgement by using "feel" instead of "think".<br>
<br>
Speaking from complete ignorance, the following idea came to mind:<br>
<br>
Does this sound wrong because there is a clash of opinion strengths going
on.<br>
<br>
I *feel=weak* you *do not=strong* know the way to the faculty building<br>
<br>
if we weaken the second:<br>
<br>
I feel you may not know where the way to the faculty building<br>
<br>
then that's OK as would strengthening the first<br>
<br>
I know you do not know the way to the faculty building<br>
<br>
or strongest of all<br>
<br>
You do not know the way to the faculty building<br>
<br>
Me thinks that this strong weak thing may well crop up in 'management speak'
or 'political speach' where people try to give the impression of speaking
forthrightly and strongly while actually trying to speak weakly so they
can't be held accountable. After all strong + weak = weak.<br>
<br>
Anyway, just a mad idea from a non-linguist.<br>
<br>
Yours,<br>
Martin</font>
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