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grammaticality - Indian English use of "only"


I am from Bangalore and people here tend use the word only to emphasise something in a sentence. For example:



We are getting that only printed.



What is the proper way to put it?



Answer



I am an America living in India and have observed the Indian English use of "only" for purposes of emphasis.


I've collected a few examples of this usage. The ones below require context because they could also mean "only" in the sense of exclusion, as an American or an Englishman would use the term. However they were all used to emphasize.


"It's a new movie only"


"It's on that branch only"


"They are Panjabi only"


"There was a tree only over there"


"That's his term only"


The following examples also use "only" for emphasis, and contextually they can't be taken any other way.


"It's an iPhone only."


"I have no lighter only."


"I'm going to eat now only."


"Immediately on arrival only he paid me."


"That is still a part of Bombay only."


"I'll get it washed tomorrow only."


"I can not understand it only"


answers phone "I'm in my room only"


"I need AA batteries"...."we will get that in town only."


If I am to understand your question correctly, you want to know how this emphasis would be given in the same situation by a Western native speaker of English. (For many Indians, "proper" here is equivalent to "English as used in the West.") It need not be though, Indian English is a great native language, it has its own sense of style.


I don't have a clean easy way of adding the same emphasis, this is a unique use of English. But I think that if the sentence was a response to


"Are you printing up my documents now?


and the Indian English speaker responds with "We are getting that only printed" (implying that it is indeed being done, not implying that the customer's print job is the only one being printed at this time) then I as an American English speaker might say "Yes, we are actually printing that right now." Perhaps "We are indeed getting that printed." Truthfully, this emphasis doesn't seem to work as well in Western English.


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