jumping

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/29/2008 09:54 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>... For me, "What are you jumping on me for?" is as unexceptional as
>"...jumping all over..."  No implication that anyone's bones are
>being jumped (even in contexts lacking the incest angle).

In most contexts I would take "jump on" similarly, as "To pounce
upon, come down upon with violence or unawares."  But in an earlier
example from Wilson, I would certainly wonder which meaning Mathis meant.

Wilson had written:
>On the Judge Greg Mathis show appeared a white, standard-speaking
>woman with her sixteen-year-old son and a white, standard-speaking
>woman with her fifteen-year-old daughter. The boy's mother complained
>that the other woman's daughter had deprived her son of his virginity.
>The girl's mother replied that the son had gone upside her daughter's
>head.
>
>Nothing gives Judge Mathis the jaws more than hearing that a man has
>abused a woman in any manner. So, before the boy's mother could reply,
>the judge angrily interrupted, saying, "That soun' like assault to me!
>Let me hear 'bout this boy _jumpin' on_ that girl!"

Joel


>LH
>
>>
>>On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>>  Subject:      Heard on tonight's Without a Trace
>>>
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  The show is set in New York City.
>>>
>>>  Ex-con white mother to shoplifting son:
>>>
>>>  "What are you *doing*?! Are you *crazy*?!"
>>>
>>>  Son replies:
>>>
>>>  "What are you _jumping on_ *me* for?! *You* did it [broke the law], too!"
>>>
>>>  Of course, the *writer* could be Southern or black.
>>>
>>>  -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
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>Randy Alexander
>>Jilin City, China
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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