More linguistic nit-picking

[robinturner]

I have just encountered the following sentence: "Every woman on earth has fantasized about some explicit sexual fantasy that she may or may not have been too ashamed to talk about."

OK, Solri, take a deep breath.

Every woman on earth
This is useful. If I hadn't read this, I might have assumed that the author was talking about women in space.

has fantasized about some explicit sexual fantasy
While I am fond of recursion, I can't see how it would be stimulating to fantasise about fantasising, whether the fantasy in question be explicit or implicit.

that she may or may not have been too ashamed to talk about
More useful information. On the one hand, she may have been ashamed to talk about it, yet on the other, she may not.

Comments

[rainswolf.livejournal.com]

It is odd. Are they just trying to say "All women have had sexual fantasies"?



Oh well at least be glad they used a capital letter at the beginning and a period at the end.

[solri.livejournal.com]

Are they just trying to say "All women have had sexual fantasies"?

One would presume so. There again, the same article uses "comprised" to mean "composed", so we can't be too sure.

[philipispdr.livejournal.com]

There is also the suggestion that some sexual fantasies may not be explicit.

DULL.

[ex-flashcat696.livejournal.com]

I fail to see how they could possibly know that about "every woman on earth" without asking each and every one of them. If some are supposedly "too ashamed" to admit it, then how can anyone else know about it? Also, what is the point of stating such as assumption?

On a personal note, I'll admit to explicit sexual fantasies that I do not talk about with anyone. ;)