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What's going on with the subject object verb agreement in the title? I see this format sometimes and it confuses me. Is the purpose of this format to convey som

by 0des 5y ago

What's going on with the subject object verb agreement in the title? I see this format sometimes and it confuses me. Is the purpose of this format to convey something?

gizmo686 5y ago
The agreement is normal, and occurs between "does" and "connector". The weird thing is the word order. A typical order would be "A blue connector does not make USB 3.0"
nixass 5y ago
Sound like literal translation from German
- wongarsu 5y ago
  Not in this case, the literal translation from German would be "A Blue Connector makes no USB 3.0", which makes perfect sense in English. But by shifting to the conditional you get "A Blue Connector would no USB 3.0 make", which is close.
neogodless 5y ago
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/52596/proper-usage-origin-of-the-generic-phrase-action-phrase-does-not-a-noun-mak https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/52596/proper-usa... Lots of discussion around the phrase origin there. Possible "original": > the archetypal phrase is "One swallow does not summer make".
- deleted 5y ago
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johnwalkr 5y ago
It’s older English, like Shakespeare which has stuck around for emphasis. It emphasizes “blue connector” in this case.
stirfish 5y ago
That format is called "hyperbaton". As with most weird things in English, blame poetry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaton https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/25508/is-employing-hyperbaton-correct-in-english https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/25508/is-employi... https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/27420/why-is-xxxx-doth-not-a-yyyy-make-considered-valid-english https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/27420/why-is-xxx...
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  As is so often the case on HN, the real value is in the comments. Thanks for teaching me a new thing today. Anastrophe is going to be my word o' the day, I think.
  - mohn 5y ago
    And here in the "Forest of Rhetoric" [0], anastrophe is just one of the 433 rhetorical figures currently cataloged, many of them with fun Greek names. You've got well over a year of word o' the day material. Epistrophe is another good one. [0] http://rhetoric.byu.edu/ http://rhetoric.byu.edu/
grishka 5y ago
By Yoda was, this title clearly written
baochan 5y ago
I know it from "Stone walls do not a prison make": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Althea,_from_Prison https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Althea,_from_Prison I find when colloquialisms like this are used it's to make a point, like using a child's nursery rhyme to indicate "something so obvious a child would know it". I think in this case it's meant to imply "This is such an obvious statement that it would be known even in antiquity, but..." to allay a "duh, no kidding" response and make the headline more eye-catching.

by 0des 5y ago

What's going on with the subject object verb agreement in the title? I see this format sometimes and it confuses me. Is the purpose of this format to convey something?

gizmo686 5y ago

The agreement is normal, and occurs between "does" and "connector". The weird thing is the word order. A typical order would be "A blue connector does not make USB 3.0"

nixass 5y ago

Sound like literal translation from German

wongarsu 5y ago
Not in this case, the literal translation from German would be "A Blue Connector makes no USB 3.0", which makes perfect sense in English. But by shifting to the conditional you get "A Blue Connector would no USB 3.0 make", which is close.

neogodless 5y ago

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/52596/proper-usage-origin-of-the-generic-phrase-action-phrase-does-not-a-noun-mak https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/52596/proper-usa... Lots of discussion around the phrase origin there. Possible "original": > the archetypal phrase is "One swallow does not summer make".

deleted 5y ago
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johnwalkr 5y ago

It’s older English, like Shakespeare which has stuck around for emphasis. It emphasizes “blue connector” in this case.

stirfish 5y ago

That format is called "hyperbaton". As with most weird things in English, blame poetry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaton https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/25508/is-employing-hyperbaton-correct-in-english https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/25508/is-employi... https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/27420/why-is-xxxx-doth-not-a-yyyy-make-considered-valid-english https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/27420/why-is-xxx...

rootusrootus 5y ago
As is so often the case on HN, the real value is in the comments. Thanks for teaching me a new thing today. Anastrophe is going to be my word o' the day, I think.
- mohn 5y ago
  And here in the "Forest of Rhetoric" [0], anastrophe is just one of the 433 rhetorical figures currently cataloged, many of them with fun Greek names. You've got well over a year of word o' the day material. Epistrophe is another good one. [0] http://rhetoric.byu.edu/ http://rhetoric.byu.edu/

grishka 5y ago

By Yoda was, this title clearly written

baochan 5y ago

I know it from "Stone walls do not a prison make": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Althea,_from_Prison https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Althea,_from_Prison I find when colloquialisms like this are used it's to make a point, like using a child's nursery rhyme to indicate "something so obvious a child would know it". I think in this case it's meant to imply "This is such an obvious statement that it would be known even in antiquity, but..." to allay a "duh, no kidding" response and make the headline more eye-catching.