At last. A home for drinkers!

[Dennis Preston]

Some of y'all boys lookin fer a place to lay your weary heads after a
night on the town may want to check out some Oklahoma possibilities.
One realtor writes about a place as follers:

Wonderful, Unique house located in a very sot after neighborhood.

dInIs

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: From Slashdot
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>You may have a point there, Matthew, WRT Br v. Am variation. But isn't
>that what dialectology is about? Had _has to do_ been spoken by an
>American and _is to do_ been spoken by an Englishman, the difference
>may wee not have caught my attention. But that wasn't the case. Both
>speakers were American. Even merely within the US, there are many
>variations, up to the point of ungrammaticality. Cf., e.g.:
>
>"You sank my boat!"
>
>A. "No I never!"
>
>B. "No I didn't!
>
>For me, A is almost laughingly ungrammatical in this context, though
>I've been hearing  people speak that way for about 65 years. I've
>simply never been able to get ready for the A version. I just can't
>feature it.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 12/11/07, Gordon, Matthew J. <GordonMJ at missouri.edu> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       "Gordon, Matthew J." <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: From Slashdot
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  I'm not sure why Wilson's pointing this out exactly. Isn't the variation =
>>  between "is to do" and "has to do" British vs. American?
>>
>>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
>>  Sent: Tue 12/11/2007 6:27 PM
>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  Subject:      From Slashdot
>>  =20
>>  "The problem _is to do_ with the power-saving systems ..."
>>
>>  -Wilson
>>  --
>>  All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>  come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>  -----
>>                                                -Sam'l Clemens
>>
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>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>                                               -Sam'l Clemens
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org