Hello, friends!
Do you remember my previous article where I told you about the election for governor that I almost missed, but was able to vote in thanks to the somewhat lenient identification process? In that article, I also did a brief etymological research on the word “identify”, which turned out to come from Latin and literally means “to make oneself” or “to prove that someone is truly themselves.” The prefix “iden-” means “the self” and “-den” is an emphasizer.
Today’s article starts from there. In English grammar, the term “emphasis” is used very often without much explanation of what it actually means to emphasize something. That’s what I want to tell you about today.
What is emphasis? According to an eminent linguistics professor, Mr. Izutsu, emphasis is “a remnant of an ancient sense of divinity.” What does he mean by that?
Contrary to the common view that language started as a tool for communication, Mr. Izutsu says language originally began as a tool for incantation – a way to invoke divine power to bring about a desired state or to prove/confirm something.
For example, the phrase “Come here” was not just a direct communication of an order, but an invocation of divine power to make the person come. It was like saying “I beseech God to make you come here right now.”
And emphasis, according to Mr. Izutsu, is a leftover of this consciousness of divine power. For instance, the word “very” in “She is very beautiful” can be interpreted as “I swear by God that she is beautiful.”
Similarly, the emphatic “do” in “I DID go to the dentist” can be seen as originally meaning “I swear by God that I went to the dentist.”
Circling back to the topic of “identify” – when you use your ID, you seem to be invoking God’s power to affirm that you are truly yourself.
I hope you continue to enjoy learning English! See you next time.
Jiro
