How could fact-checking EVER be a bad thing?

[GoodTaste]

The word "ever" here is capitalized to emphasize the verb "be"? Is such way of a capitalized word serving as an emphasis common in English?


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Richard Dawkins
@RichardDawkins
·
5h
How could fact-checking EVER be a bad thing? The only limit to fact-checking should be the time and expense of doing so. What honest, reasonable person could EVER object to being fact-checked? Please support fact-checkers everywhere. Including Twitter now

 

[GoodTaste]

What is the correct word order then?

Is the capitalized EVER the emphasis of itself?

 

[GoesStation]

The word "ever" here is capitalized to emphasize the verb "be"? Is such way of a capitalized word serving as an emphasis common in English?

You should know by now that that is not the correct word order for a question, GoodTaste.

What is the correct word order then?

Is the capitalized EVER the emphasis of itself?

You asked two questions in your original post. Piscean was calling attention to the first one because it doesn't use the subject-verb inversion that questions require. Both questions are a bit complicated, so rather than asking you to try again, I'll suggest revisions:

Is the word "ever" capitalized here to emphasize the word "be"? Is it common in English to capitalize an entire word to denote emphasis?

The answer is yes, it's not uncommon to capitalize a whole word to show it should be emphasized. It's an alternative to bold face. I've read Project Gutenberg transcriptions of Jane Austen novels that used capitalization in place of the bold face that you'll see in printed editions.

Bold face is generally preferable.

 

[jutfrank]

I wouldn't say that the word EVER emphasises the verb be.

I'm pleased to say I've never used Twitter, but I imagine boldfacing is not an option. I suppose that capitalising is the only way of getting this effect.

 

[SoothingDave]

Correct. There are no fonts or formatting.

You may also see things like "how can it *ever be a bad thing?"

 

[TheParser]

I wouldn't say that the word EVER emphasises the verb be.

Would you kindly explain why?

 

[TheParser]

Is the capitalized EVER the emphasis of itself?

NOT A TEACHER


1. Your fascinating question sent me to one of my favorite books, The Grammar Book by Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freeman (1983 edition), page 206.

a. They claim that an adverb such as "ever" often modifies the entire sentence.

2. If that is accurate, then "ever" is modifying "How could fact-checking be a bad thing?"

a. They give this example: "Cynthia never smiles at strangers." According to those two scholars, that is another way to say "It is never the case that Cynthia smiles at strangers."

3. Thus, in my opinion, maybe (maybe!) your sentence is a shorter way to say something like "Is it ever the case how fact-checking could be a bad thing?"


*****

P.S. For the sake of simplicity, secondary school teachers would be delighted, I think, if their students parsed "ever" as modifying the verb. Thus, "never" modifies "smiles," and "ever" modifies "could be." The analysis of those two scholars is better suited to university-level grammar.

 

[Tdol]

How could fact-checking EVER be a bad thing?

It could be bad if not everyone is held to the same standards. I am not commenting on the case in question, but if the fact-checking were not universal and targeted certain groups or opinions, it would be bad. It definitely could be used as a form of censorship.