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I've long wondered about the but after a verb in the negative sense -- usually can with not. For example, "You can't help but feel there might be an element of snobbery in the outrage . . . ." Mark Steel, Independent (UK), Mar. 30, 2011, at 4 (emphasis added). Why is the word but necessary, when the negative attached to the word can already seems to convey the exact same message? Namely, how would the sentence, "You can't help . . . feel there might be an element of snobbery in the outrage," have any different meaning? The word but in the initial quote seems superfluous, no? I understand that the construction "can't help but . . ." is so ingrained as idiom now that my question amounts to tilting at windmills, but I can't help feel frustrated (OK, right there I should've said, "I can't help [my] feeling frustrated," because the gerund phrase makes more sense, but I couldn't think of a better ironic end-line, so there you have it).
Good question, and I can't help suspecting [yes, I did that on purpose] it is logically superfluous, and only used that way idiomatically. Actually, to my ear, if you're gonna drop the "but," the phrase sounds better as "I can't help feeling …" wherein "feeling" is a gerund. I'm not sure that "feel" used in place of "feeling" would also be a gerund. If it is, I'm sure someone will correct me.
Either way, I often write/speak that construct using "feeling" instead of "feel." I don't use the "but" for precisely the reason that it always seemed superfluous to me.
Same goes for "I can't help thinking/recalling/regretting etc."
Well, it is a mushy construction, but I think it works out "logically" to be a kind of triple negative: I can't (am unable) help (prevent myself from, not do) but (anything except, that which is not). Otherwise, it's a construction I've heard all my life. I've noticed its oddity, but have never before tried to think it through. I'll probably continue to use it as a nasty habit.
Peter
I think it's a combination with an older form. They used to say "he could not but feel..."; when I was a child we would say "he couldn't help feeling..."; but in the last 20 years or so people have started combining the two forms and saying "he couldn't help but feel...", which as you say is redundant. I correct it when I'm proofreading; feel free to use one or the other of the original forms, but not both.
If you believe the spoken sounds alone can be expressive, then 'can't help but feel' has its own merit: it sounds stronger, more strident, more emotional than the correct form 'can't help feeling'
From what I've googled up (tons of it), there seems to be wide consensus that 'can't help but do' is established usage. But objections to it probably will go on forever. And that is good– part of the healthy vigilance over the language.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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