[Ads-l] ADS-L Digest - 26 Sep 2022 to 27 Sep 2022 (#2022-242)

Amy West medievalist at W-STS.COM
Wed Sep 28 15:55:51 UTC 2022


On 9/28/22 00:04, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> Date:    Tue, 27 Sep 2022 20:34:51 -0400
> From:    Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: WE KEEP US SAFE
>
> I'm not convinced that it isn't a case of implicit contrast or focus, at
> least initially. (Seems like it's become a movement slogan.)


In which case, we have to recognize that its form is more fixed (than not).


> Note these
> examples from the web, also with no explicit trigger but where (given the
> cleft syntax) there's clearly a contrastive focus involved:


Oh man, clefts. I sooo do not have a handle on analyzing cleft 
structures yet . . .


>   it's we (or:
> we're the ones), and not someone else
>
> At the end of the day, though, it's we who keep us safe.


I find it interesting that for me, because of "it's" there, using an 
Objective Subject? ("us") would be an option in that first slot (giving 
"it's us who keep us safe", which would probably clash much more for Mark.)


---Amy West

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