Today's Language Lesson: American English, Midwest Dialect
Today's topic of discussion is the sentence fragment 'do you want to' and its usage in Midwestern English. Like many sentence fragments its meaning is dependent on the context in which it is being used, and who is using it. Two examples are below:
"Do you want to go to the movies?"
In the first example the user is asking the second party if they would be interested in partaking in an activity he is already amenable to partaking in.
Here is example two:
"Do you want to go in the back and help the vaccuming crew for just a little while?"
In this second more onerous example, a manager of a car wash has ambushed the employee in charge of 'external advertising' (i.e. walking around outside the car wash holding a sign) before he even had the opportunity to clock in to work, and instructed him that he is going to be spending some time doing a job for which he is neither professionally or physically competent...and OF COURSE the 'little while' turns into a full eight hour shift on what is the busiest day of the year so far. The manager phrasing it in the form of a question gives the polite illusion of giving the employee a choice, when both parties are well aware of the fact that no such choice exists.
NOTE: As a result of the second exchange, the employee in the example has decided to start looking for a better job...
"Do you want to go to the movies?"
In the first example the user is asking the second party if they would be interested in partaking in an activity he is already amenable to partaking in.
Here is example two:
"Do you want to go in the back and help the vaccuming crew for just a little while?"
In this second more onerous example, a manager of a car wash has ambushed the employee in charge of 'external advertising' (i.e. walking around outside the car wash holding a sign) before he even had the opportunity to clock in to work, and instructed him that he is going to be spending some time doing a job for which he is neither professionally or physically competent...and OF COURSE the 'little while' turns into a full eight hour shift on what is the busiest day of the year so far. The manager phrasing it in the form of a question gives the polite illusion of giving the employee a choice, when both parties are well aware of the fact that no such choice exists.
NOTE: As a result of the second exchange, the employee in the example has decided to start looking for a better job...