Why worry her when it's all over?

[Seiichi Myoga]

Do you think (2) is a paraphrase of (1)?

(1) Why worry her when it’s all over? (Sinclair 1990:348)
(2) You should not worry her when it's all over.

Thank you in advance
Seiichi MYOGA

I know "why + bare infinitive" suggests "an action is unnecessary or pointless," corresponding to some kind of negative sentence. I'm not sure of what phrase should fill in the dotted part of "... worry her when it's all over."

[Jamie (K)]

I would paraphrase (1) as, "Is there any reason to worry her after the event has finished?" or when asked as a rhetorical question, "There is no reason to worry here after the event has finished."

"Why + bare infinitive" is just as often an informational question as it is a statement that something is unnecessary or pointless.

"Why do that?" doesn't really mean, "You shouldn't do that." It means something more like, "Unless you can give me a good reason, I don't know whether you should do that."

So, if my relative says, "Why practice aikido?" (which he really asked me), he is not telling me that I shouldn't practice aikido. He is simply saying that he doesn't know what the purpose of aikido is, and he wants me to explain it.

[Seiichi Myoga]

Dear Jamie (K),

I appreciate your help and comments.

It is quite interesting that (1) can also be interpreted as something like a normal wh-question.

Sinclair (1990:348) says that by "why worry her" the speaker actually means his or her disagreement and the when-clause provides the reason for his or her disagreement.

Seiichi MYOGA