Thank you, Emma. That is an excellent link. I try not to use 'she noticed' etc but I'll check for similar instances and see what can be undertaken instead.

Seconded.

[quote]Did he leave people with very few teeth? Or is there another meaning to this expression? {/quote]



Sorry to butt in so tardily, but I think I'm with Terry - don't think 'unexpectant' feels right. Which is not a desperately helpful comment, is it, because I'm not technical and can't pin down why.

All I can say is, if I'd written it, I would keep coming back to it because it would bug me. For me, it draws the attention to the word itself rather than to the implication.

All I can say is, if I'd written it, I would keep coming back to it because it would bug me

Me too, over and over and over and over again.
And sometimes, maybe like Sharley, I become so attached to a particular word, because I think it seems perfect, that I try to build a sentence around it.
Yes, I know. I know.

One of the problems is that unexpectant doesn't appear to be a recognised word, or at least it isn't commonly used; which may be part of the reason it snags in a lot of people's minds.

Yes, that's it exactly - expectant/ly would be fine (obviously not in this context, but as a word it would be fine), but unexpectant doesn't seem to work in the same way.

I'm still in favour of 'unexpectant' and I think it does add something to the sentence. The fact that he hung back doesn't of itself mean that, when he did speak, it would necessarily be in a manner that foresaw refusal.

Interesting link, Emma. As you've said, filters are sometimes necessary and, I think, can only be cut out entirely if writing in first person. Only can, not should.

Incidentally, I've just tried the link to your latest full blog but the link comes up 'error'.

I still like 'unexpectant', too.

The "his voice unexpectant" is a more internal/subjective perception, which comes from slightly further inside Emma's point of view

I take it this is third person, not first? In which case, I think it's perfectly OK to have the third person narrator perceive Josh's voice as unexpectant. However, if the scene is written from the other (female?) character's POV, perhaps the perception of the lack of expectancy should be better anchored to that character's POV, as Emma suggests.

I take it this is third person, not first?

It's first person. The mother is looking at the son and recognising (for the first time) that when he asks for something from the step-father, it is done with a lack of expectation of a positive outcome.

The fact that he hung back doesn't of itself mean that, when he did speak, it would necessarily be in a manner that foresaw refusal.

Yes, exactly - it's a step further in the narrator's understanding of how Josh feels.

I think "unexpectant" is just nicely at the point where it may not be in common use, but we have enough words related to it - unexpected, expectant, and un- being perhaps the most widely and naturally used prefix, that no reader would have a problem with it.

Incidentally, I've just tried the link to your latest full blog but the link comes up 'error'.

Thanks, Wordsmithreen. I wondered why I hadn't got any hits through from here...

I've corrected it now, but if you still want to have a look at it, to save you the bother, it's here:

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2013/01/composting-dreaming-and-other-hard-work.html

<Added>

Re unexpectant, it is a word:

OED gives:

1811 Wordsworth Epist. to Sir G. H. Beaumont 209 "Not unexpectant that by early day Our little Band would thrid this mountain-way."

1881 E. F. Poynter Among the Hills II. 84 "Abashed by the unexpectant calm that met her."

and under "un-" as a prefix says:

Un-

Expressing negation. The prefix has been very extensively employed in English, as in the other Germanic languages, and is now the one which can be used with the greatest freedom in new formations...

Un- is freely prefixed to adjectives of all kinds, except where a Latin form in in-, etc., has definitely established itself in common use.