Which word would you emphasize?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How you say something matters a lot. As is shown above, depending on which word we emphasize, the sentence: I didn’t say she stole my money can have seven distinctly different meanings. In writing we can show them using italics or color.

 

Where did this example come from first? A search at Google Books got me to it being on page 129 of the 1990 book titled Making Friends, written by Andrew Matthews. It is referenced by Tony Atwood on page 80 in his 1998 book Asperger’s Syndrome: A Guide for Professionals.

 

On the internet it has shown up several times. The first I found was a brief article by Andy Lobban on May 5, 2009 simply titled I didn’t say she stole my money. It also was in an article by Steve Borsch on March 10, 2010 at Connecting the Dots titled Be VERY Careful Using Social Media. Also, it was in an article by Debra Yearwood at CommStorm on March 3, 2014 titled How to Present Data.