"like," intrans.

[Dave Robertson]

Isn't "like", with this "ellipsis of object", what the linguists call an
unergative?  That is, a distinct category of intransitives.

And the forms "me likey" etc. should probably be attributed to (mock-)
Chinese Pidgin English (also known by other names)--which specialists
consider a language distinct from English.  "The Common Foreign Language of
the Red-Haired People" (1835) includes CPE entries for /laih geih/ "likee"
and /nah laih geih/ "nah likee".  (Reproduced in Kingsley Bolton's 2003
"Chinese Englishes: A Sociolinguistic History".)

--Dave R.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: "like," intrans.


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
here's
> the OED:
>
> DRAFT ADDITIONS JUNE 2003
>
>     enjoy, v.
>
>  [In later use, prob. after dialectal Yiddish genist.] In imper.,
> with ellipsis of object: take pleasure in the thing (freq. food or
> drink) being presented.

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