this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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It was never needed in the past and ads no context that a simple exclamation point or bold letters could do if a person wants to add emphasis.

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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

That's interesting.

It might be a parallel development to address the same issue. It isn't like people incorrectly interpreting what others say is a new thing.

Another possibility is that, initially, the "but" came as an afterthought, to highlight the contradiction. Then in Oz+Kiwi English it became frequent enough to be conventionalised. Like (reusing my example from the earlier comment):

  • Alice: "I like apples. I like bananas better. ... but."

A third possibility would be that that "but" initially implied something that got clipped for succinctness. I find it a bit unlikely due to your example, but I've seen people doing it with Portuguese "mas" (but):

  • Alice: "Gosto de maçãs. Mas..." [implicit: "prefiro bananas"]
  • "I like apples. But..." [implicit: "I like bananas better"]
[–] livus@kbin.social 1 points 7 months ago

@lvxferre because of the intonation, I think it's likely the first one. It's often used in a semi-humorous way.

Eg. "Charlene's prettier than Stacey. Stacey's dad owns a brewery, but."