Conference thebay::joyoflex

    Not wrong, it just means something different from what the speaker's
    usually trying to express. In some schools of thought, of course, the
    mere fact of a speaker's trying to express something is sufficient
    for what they say to `mean' it; I'm not so sure. [That is, I _am_
    sure but I'm not sure whether either `school' or `thought' was
    appropriate.]

    Someone who only has a cake doesn't also eat a cake.

    Someone who has only a cake doesn't also have a muffin.

    In other words, the `only' limits the nearest word. (Actually I'm aware
    that this rule is slipping into desuetude; but as Martin Amis said of
    `hopefully' [in abuses that we all know and love, thoughtfully -
    meaning, of course, I think] "The battle has already been lost,
    but I'm damned if I'll use it like that".)
    
    b

My tenth grade English teacher (whose real job in school was coaching
the football team) used to say that the word 'only' tends to limit the
word appearing immediately before it, unless it is the first word of the
sentence, in which case it limits the second word.

So, in your examples, "I only have something" would mean that no one
but the speaker has that thing, but "I have only something" would mean
(like .1 said) that the speaker does nothing with that something but
have it:  not eat it, not look at it, not think about it.

In practice, though, I think that "I have only something" would mean
that the speaker has no other thing.  Coach was wrong.

Dave C.

    > In practice, though, I think that "I have only something" would mean
    > that the speaker has no other thing.  Coach was wrong.
    
    To make the example clearer, "I have only one apple."
    An English pseudo-teacher might say that this means that you both
    ate and still have all your other apples.
    He was good at coaching only you.  (Read with his only interpretation.)

    I learned that it limited the word that came after it.  So "I only
    have something" would mean I have it, but I can't use it.  "I have
    only one apple" would mean I don't have more than one.

    --bonnie

    Bonnie,
    
    What about:  "I only have eyes for you."  
    
    Look, but don't touch?

re .5

>    What about:  "I only have eyes for you."  

The problem with this quotation is that it is misspelled.  The correct
rendition is:  "I only have I's for U's," and was spoken by a frustrated
player near the end of a Scrabble brand crossword game when all the U's
were gone.

See also "I know I'll never find another U."

Dave C.

I expect you'd find that the majority of American speakers completely ignore
this distinction.  For instance:

"Hey Joe, can I borrow a quarter?"

"Sorry Bill, I only have a dime."

The percentage of the population who would use the "correct" form ("I have 
only a dime") is probably miniscule.

-dave

There seems to be a difference depending on whether one uses the indefinite
article or the quantity "one".

For example:

A) I only have one brother.

versus

B) I have only one brother.

Compare that to this:

C) I only have a brother.

versus

D) I have only a brother.

A, B, and C all sound right to my ear, but D sounds like something a non-native
speaker might say.  A and C would be reasonable answers to the question "Do you
have any siblings?"  B, on the other hand, might be the answer to a question
like "Don't you have several brothers?" though A also sounds right in this case.

Wook (I really do have only one brother.)

    I like D) fine.  Suppose you were asked, "Do you have a brother and a
    sister?"
    
    "I have only a brother."
    
    -d

I would have answered "I only have a brother."

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Wook

    To me (sorry to all of you who have to back up and find this),
    both C and D sound like they come from non-native speakers.
    "only [...] a" is, perhaps, antiidiomatic.
    
    "I only have a brother" --> I don't also like him; I only have him.

    I know that Compose L - gets me the pound sign. �
    
    and that's about it.
    
    Pointers please or clues on how to get accents, graves, cirumflexes,
    and stuff like that.
    
    Dougie
    

    It's in the owner's manual for your terminal or workstation, but if you
    can't find it, try the most obvious graphic equivalents:
    
    	a + ' = �
    	c + , = �
    
    	a + * = �
    	e + ` = �
    	n + ~ = �
    	u + " = �
    
    etc.
    
    -Tom
                 

    For a complete list of Latin-1 Compose Characters, look in the
    documentation for the Terminal Fallback Utility.

Or consult tables 6-2 and 6-3 in "Installing and Using The VT330/VT340 Video
Terminal", pp 110-124. 

Phillip

    re: .15
    
    ah, but I'm 10 short.
    
    Dougie
    

    They're probably the same.
    
    I have a 320 and the requisite table is 5-1 in Inst & Using The
    VT320 Video Terminal. But I remember that when I first had the
    320, without the book, I carried on using the 220 doc; the
    appropriate table in the older book was largely similar, except 
    for the new ISO characters.
    
    b