the versatility of "be"

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Fri Nov 4 22:20:25 UTC 2005


scene: dining room of the Stanford Humanities Center, at lunch time.
director arrives with a stanford english dept. professor he's
bringing to lunch.  visitor spies a department colleague of hers.

visitor, to colleague: What brings you here?

colleague: I *am* here!

[meaning, of course, that he is not merely present in the SHC at the
moment, but is here in a more long-range sense -- as a 2005-06
Fellow, in fact]

arnold



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