14 years later…
I realized there is an alternate interpretation to Hootie and the Blowfish’s great anthem to dopey 90s rock-pop “Only Wanna Be With You.”
My Linguistics is so rusty I can’t recall the proper way to present the semantics, but basically it’s the other usage of only.
Reading 1: (The one I’ve been operating under for the last 14 years) He only wants to be with her, and no one else.
Reading 2: (The one that just came to me in a moment of zen on the way back from the grocery store) He only wants to be with her, and nothing more. ie, he just wants to tap that ass, not ring it. The ring line in particular (“but she wants to wear my ring” – or something like that) in particular makes much more sense.
Brains are funny things.
I think you may have made, with this very post: THE BEST BLOG ENTRY EVER.
I accept your high praise.
A day later and I’m still laughing.
[...] too much into lyrics: One Night in Bangkok This will be somewhat reminiscent of an earlier post I did on linguistic applications in contemporary songcraft…O.O OK I mean reading way too [...]