I've discovered a neat trick: you can intensify any sentence by replacing "person" (and similar synonyms) with "human being".
Compare: "I haven't hugged another person since before the pandemic" vs. "I haven't hugged another human being since before the pandemic."
The second one sounds a lot more dire, doesn't it?
Compare: "You used straight apostrophes in last month's newsletter and smart apostrophes in this month's newsletter. But no one else is going to notice." vs. "You used straight apostrophes in last month's newsletter and smart
apostrophes in this month's newsletter. But no other human being is going to
notice."
The likelihood of being noticed sounds a lot lower in the second one, doesn't it? (Even though, if you're really pedantic about it, "no other human being" is narrower in scope - "no one" could plausibly include dogs and aliens and AI.)
I love things like this, where minor changes in wording have clearly discernable changes in connotation, even though no one can explain why no human being can explain why!
1 comment:
So true! You've stumbled on a writing trick used by writers of science and science fiction. YA writers will do this, too, for dramatic emphasis. It probably doesn't work for anthropology.
I've been tempted to have a blog devoted to things like this.
Post a Comment