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"Only” is a more significant word than one might think
7 years agoExactly how does she feel about him?
This will certainly make you think about the subtle nuances of the English language and how punctuation can change the meaning – with the result that simply ordering your sentence in the wrong way could mean that you say something quite different to what you intended. Look at the following sentence.
“She told him that she loved him.”
Now let’s look at how the meaning is changed simply by adding the word “only” into different parts of the sentence. Read these sentences aloud and see how you subtly change the intonation according to where the ‘only’ is placed.
“She only told him that she loved him.” The emphasis with this wording is on the word “only”, and adding the word “only” in this part of the sentence results in the implication that he was upset, or that he had overreacted to what he had been told; one might expect the preceding sentence to say something like, “He stormed angrily out of the room. She hadn’t said anything bad – she only told him that she loved him.”
“She told only him that she loved him.” Worded like this, the word “only” implies that she might have told others that she loved them, too. The emphasis in the sentence changes to the first “him”.
“She told him only that she loved him.” Now the emphasis shifts back to the “only”, and implies that she could have told him other things, but that she only told him this particular thing.
“She told him that only she loved him.” This wording places the emphasis on the “she”, implying that others could love him, but only she does.
“She told him that she only loved him.” This time, the emphasis falls on the final “him”; she’s telling him that he is the only one she loves, the implication being that she doesn’t love anyone else. Alternatively, a strict reading implies that while she loves him, that is in some manner insufficient – so she might be telling him that although she loves him, for their relationship to go any further, she needs to respect him as well.
“She told him that she loved only him.” Finally, this wording places the emphasis on the last “him” again, implying that she could love others.
This example shows the importance of intonation in the English language, as well as the appropriate ordering of a sentence.
