Gone and V-ed

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 01:26 PM 11/7/00 -0500, you wrote:
>On Tue, 7 Nov 2000, Johanna N Franklin wrote:
>
> >     I'm more used to hearing it as "...went and...," obviously, but I
> > have heard "gone" too (growing up in southern Illinois, rather rural).
> > This construction was mainly used to discuss someone doing something bad.
>
>"Went and..." (as well as "gone and...") sounds very natural to me,
>too. (mid-Michigan rural/industrial hybrid).
>
>-- Steve K.

Both are familiar to me too (rural/small town Minnesota), though I
associate them with my childhood style of speech (like that of
Scout).  They imply an elliptical "ahead" too:  "She went (ahead) and did
it," as if it wasn't foreseen or expected (not necessarily bad).  Isn't
this also a bit like a serial verb construction in which the first verb
isn't necessarily action-based?  Cf. "Let's go see."  "Let's go do
it."  "Let's go drown our dinner in syrup . . . ."

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm