a dialect using just participle?

[Tom Zurinskas]

I've heard it recently (leaving the "is" out of a verb) in newscasts on CNN
I think.  I figured it was a way to shorten verbage.  I really don't think
it's proper for media to do.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+
See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.


>From: Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>Subject:      a dialect using just participle?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Folks,
>
>I read this list to make myself more informed and knowledgeable.
>
>Last semester I had a student in my EN 101 class who consistently
>wrote what I thought were fragments -- using the present participle
>by itself as the verb for a sentence.
>
>Now, finally, I'm reading the handbook (Longman Writer's Companion)
>and in their discussion of the progressive & perfect tenses they
>identify as a dialect example this:
>
>The interview starting five minutes late.
>(They analyze it as omitting _is_ in _is starting_.)
>
>I've never run across this dialectical variant. Now I feel really
>stupid for thinking that my student was stupid.
>
>Have other folks seen this construction?
>
>---Amy West
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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