novenarik (novenarik) wrote in linguaphiles,
novenarik
novenarik
linguaphiles

It is too!

This is one of those phrases that I guess I've never really looked at objectively, until transcribing my friend's daughter (3 yrs old) this afternoon. In response to her father's "No, it isn't" she countered "it is too."

Now, when I got to that part it took me a minute to "figure out" which to/too was at play here. I'm settled with 'too' and I am aware that we are looking at a juvenile phrasing here and not standard English.

So I guess my question is what is going on in this sentence? Because I know this is a common phrasing, but looking at it, it doesn't really make sense, nevertheless it feels intuitively correct. Is it as simple as a simple swapping 'too' for 'so' across the board?

Consider from a toddler's perspective:

"it is so cold" : "it is too cold" :: "it is not -- it is so" : "it is not -- it is too"

I hope this is making sense. I feel like I am following a mental moebius strip in trying to get this into words.
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  • 40 comments

  • Interpretation of the Legend

    (inscriptions on the Kushan Kingdom coins / надписи на монетах Кушанского царства)

  • Spanish query

    I would be most grateful if anyone could help me out with a Spanish idiom, an expression appearing in a discussion of torture from the late 18th…

  • A very strange Etruscan inscription

    Chiusi is a small town in Italy (province of Siena, Tuscany). And once it was one of the most powerful centers of the Etruscan League of 12 cities.…