The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook - Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters 2002

2.2. Emotive emphasis in speech 2
Unit two TWO. Emotion

Sections 302-305; 417

• The emotive force of a wh-question can be strengthened by adding ever, on earth, etc. to the wh- word.

• Negative sentences can be intensified by adding at all, a bit, whatever, a thing, etc. or by putting not a before a noun. The negative element can also be placed at the beginning of a clause, which normally causes subject-operator inversion.

• An exclamatory question is a yes-no question spoken with an emphatic falling tone. It often has a negative form.

• A rhetorical question is more like a forceful statement and can have a positive or negative form. There are also rhetorical wh-questions.

Task one **

Intensify the emotive force of the underlined parts by adding one of the phrases below. Use each of these phrases only once, some of them being interchangeable.

1. I didn’t have any money.

2. Why are you going to sell such a unique painting?

3. I wasn’t surprised that things had got out of hand.

4. There was so much noise that night that I didn’t sleep.

5. How did the serial killer manage to escape from prison?

6. What have you been doing to your hair?

7. There is no reason to be so upset about Erica’s sudden departure.

8. Without light, no one could see in that dark cave.

9. It is not true that the whale is a type of fish.

10. Gary was severely reprimanded but he doesn’t care.

Task two *

Put the negative element in front position to make the sentence sound more rhetorical, using the appropriate word order.

1. I had never met the Sultan of Brunei before.

2. It is by no means clear that the United States will sign the agreement.

3. These magnificent flowers are nowhere else to be found.

4. The harsh ruler spared not a single insurgent’s life.

5. We should in no way lend credibility to the witness’s account of the facts.

6. I will support Mr Barlow under no circumstances whatsoever.

7. British women did not get the vote until after the First World War.

8. This evil man not only murdered his wife, he also mutilated her body.

Task three ***

Rewrite the following dialogue by turning the sentences into exclamatory OR rhetorical questions, as indicated in brackets.

Dick: Oh boy, I’m tired. (exclamatory positive)

Emma: You’ve been overdoing it again. (rhetorical negative)

Dick: I haven’t got an alternative. (rhetorical wh-question)

Emma: You could ask me to lend you a hand from time to time. (rhetorical negative)

Dick: That’s a most generous offer. (exclamatory negative)

Emma: I detect some irony in your voice. (rhetorical positive)

Dick: I’ve asked you many times in the past. (rhetorical wh-question)

Emma: I was suffering from depression then. (rhetorical negative)

Dick: Hard work is the best antidote to depression. (rhetorical negative)

Emma: Oh, but I felt sleepy all the time, taking those pills. (exclamatory positive)

Dick: I would have been a far better doctor for you, then. (rhetorical negative)

Emma: Oh Dick, you are hopeless. (exclamatory positive)