Noncompositional

Well, I was going to have a nice long post on a couple of clausal conjunction constructions that I’ve been thinking about lately, but I got caught up with something even more fun - learning about the protection of human subjects in research! In addition to the usual forms and such that a researcher has to fill out before asking someone if some sentence is in fact ungrammatical, students now have to complete a multi-part quiz on the topic. So I was occupying myself with the test, which looks like it’ll take another hour or so of my time - even longer if the web side serving the test crashes like it did a few minutes ago.

In any case, I’ll just make a little note to myself, and if anyone out there wants to buzz in early, go ahead.

Consider the …may…but… construction (first brought to my attention in a 1990 article by Paul Kay called Even (Philosophy and Linguistics 10: v. 13,1)), exemplified by:

She may have been sentimental, but Mrs. Stanford was no flake. (link)

The first clause, with the may modal, indicates concession on the part of the speaker, rather than an assertion that some possibility exists, and the second clause nonetheless holds. Of course I could try unpack “nonetheless” into smaller elements (say, that the second clause asserts that some other state-of-affairs holds that is more important than the first, and that although someone might claim the first clause’s importance, the truth of the second clause overrides that because it goes against normal expectations), but I won’t touch that.

Okay, so what else can go in the second clause? Let’s try questions:

he may be able to live without it, but how? (link)

Okay, so you concede some fact but then ask for elaboration on the fact so that you can better understand it. Fine.

Bill Clinton may have had questionable personal ethics, but who else has even tried to reform the health care system in this country? (link)

Okay, rhetorical questions, good, good.

Flies may be necessary for some ecosystems, but what are three of them doing in my soup?

Great, works fine with WXDY. How about…

(a security guard says) You may be the CEO of the company on the top floor, but where do you think you’re going, (mister/sonny/buster)?

Good?

You may be the CEO (of the company on the top floor) but where are you going?

Something seems pragmatically odd about this to me, but I can’t quite put my foot on it. Something about the second clause not having quite the right pragmatic force, or not leading the hearer to the right implicature, so that it meshes with the first part. It’s almost too much of an informational question, which doesn’t fit with the first clause because it’s really not directly related; it seems better for the “where do you think you’re going, mister,” because that at least has the conventional use of “You better not be going where I think you’re going, because you ain’t supposed to be going there.”

And finally:

(says one security guard to another, watching some high-profile person on security camera) He may be the president of XYZ, but where (does he think / is he) going?

Well, not much time for the other stuff, so I’ll just list it: -The doctor is in, or so I think / I think the doctor’s in, or (so) she (indeed) is. -The water will then evaporate and blow away.