Yeah, I'm not sure how you could mistaken Word Count For Emphasis as a line of dialogue, or how specifying the number of words you're going to say in order to emphasize their importance is covered by punctuation or pauses.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.![]()
How is it any less tropeworthy than, say, Punctuated! For! Emphasis! or This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!? It's a particular way of speaking in order to put emphasis on what you're saying.
Yeah. It's a Stock Phrase. I didn't think we get rid of existing Stock Phrases.
edited 6th Oct '13 4:30:35 PM by MikuruFan
Being a Stock Phrase is actually a reason for cutting. However, this one seems less like a Stock Phrase and more like a word structure that storytelling uses to convey emphasis.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanMy ideas:
While it is a little spoonsy, I like Word Count For Wmphasis. Maybe if the other type is split off, Wrong Word Count could work.
I would make a crowner by now, but I am not sure if the other variant (the comedic wrong word count one) should be split off. Their uses are a little different, but basically they're similar.
edited 11th Oct '13 9:59:10 PM by MikuruFan
Word Count For Emphasis sounds clunky and awkward.
Anything with "Word Count" in it doesn't appeal to me, really. It's an awkward-sounding phrase, and the more common usage of it is for, like, essays or whatever. "Two Words" sounds better and is crystal-clear.
I'd say that the fact that the trope doesn't necessarily use two words is more important than the fact that you think "two words" sounds better than "word count". The trope is "telling someone the number of words you're going to say in order to emphasize the importance of those words". Word Count For Emphasis isn't the wittiest title ever, but it's no worse than Punctuated! For! Emphasis! or This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!, and it's going to be hard to find anything clearer or more concise. If you want to get in the two key concepts (the fact that you're saying the number of words, and the fact that you're doing it to emphasize them), then the alternatives are something like Number Of Words For Emphasis or Emphasizing With Number Of Words, which are both longer and don't flow as well.
edited 12th Oct '13 1:57:29 AM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Emphasizing Shortness or Short For Emphasis.
Also, I'll probably ask for a rename crowner.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanI think yes. There's no functional difference between "One word: 'No.'", "Two words: 'No way.'", "Three words: 'Not gonna happen.'" and "Four words: 'Not while I'm around.'" They all say the same thing with roughly the same amount of emphasis. They aren't different tropes.
A miscount on the number of words, like "Two words: 'No way in hell!'" does have a different use — it makes the scene or character using it somewhat comic just by being there.
edited 12th Oct '13 1:44:49 PM by Madrugada
Crown Description:

This is a little too close to being a Stock Phrase. Closer than I'm comfortable with. Any legitimate uses should be covered by Punctuated! For! Emphasis! and/or Dramatic Pause, which almost always accompany this one and, in such cases, are more directly responsible for the emphasis anyway. It's not the same trope, but it scoops up enough of the examples that they won't go undocumented.
Whatever else we do, I like faux-redlinking it. Anyone using it as a Pothole Magnet isn't paying attention to where the link points, so redirecting wouldn't do much.
[Edited for clarity]
edited 6th Oct '13 1:39:51 PM by troacctid