So John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats does this thing in some of his lyrics where he’ll start a sentence out with a verb as though it’s an imperative, but it’s from a first-person POV. There’s a lot of examples but the song “Counterfeit Florida Plates” is the one that comes to mind first, for me. Is there a technical term for what he’s doing here?

EDIT: changed wording to be less ambiguous

  • neptune@dmv.socialEnglish
    12·
    10 months ago

    If I understand it correctly, it may be a garden path sentence. The usual construction of a garden path sentence is where a sentence, when read, the part of speech for a word is different than immediately considered.

    The old man the boats.

    Here it seems when considered a word at a time that the old man… Oh wait “man” is not the subject of the sentence, “Old” is not an adjective.

    • EponymousBosh@beehaw.orgOP
      61·
      10 months ago

      Not exactly, but I don’t blame you for being confused. I didn’t realize my own wording was ambiguous! “Counterfeit Florida Plates” is the name of the song where the type of lyrics I’m referring to are used. An example:

      Steal some sunscreen/From the CVS/Use too much/And make a great big mess/Wait where shadows/Mask or hide my scent

      Normally a sentence starting with a verb like that is an imperative or a command, with “you” being the understood subject. But here, the narrator is talking about himself in first person (“mask or hide my scent”). So I was wondering if that usage had a name.