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From: Kate Baldwin <spamx@nojunk.chi.edu>
Subject: Re: Is there over there?
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Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 20:11:50 GMT
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dski@cameonet.cameo.com.tw wrote:
> 
> Desmond Sin (dcmsin@hk.super.net) wrote --
> 
> > Surely when I say something is there, I mean it's not here, and that it is,
> > well, there. Why do we have to say "over there"?
> 
> "It's there" can be a bit curt. "It's over there" is somehow softer.
> 
This brings up a further question: How is "It's right there" different from "It's 
over there?"  "Right there" is not necessarily closer to either speaker or hearer 
than "over there".  Maybe it implies greater specificity or is a stronger assertion 
on the speaker's part, so that S is more accountable for knowing exactly where "it" 
is than if S had said "over there".
