Heard on tonight's Without a Trace

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sun Mar 2 06:27:26 UTC 2008


Yes, I can understand both in that sense, too, of course. I admit that
I was being unnecessarily argumentative on this point.

-Wilson

On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 11:01 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>  Subject:      Re: Heard on tonight's Without a Trace
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  I think Randy/LanDiu meant not that the expressions are
>  interchangeable, but that they are about synonymous IN THE SENSE
>  'criticize (strongly and extensively)'. I understand them that way
>  (too).
>
>  m a m
>
>  On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 3:25 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > Well, clearly, _jumping all over_ is not the *same* as _jump on_. Can
>  > "He _jumped all over her_ mean "He struck her" or "He punched her" or
>  > "He beat her up"? I think not.
>  >
>  > Back in the day, a whore said to me:
>  >
>  > "Tommy (her pimp; in those days, pimps didn't use fancy names like
>  > "Pimping Kyle" or "White Chocolate") _jumped on_ me yesterday."
>  >
>  > When I asked her what he had done, she answered:
>  >
>  > "He whipped me with a [wire] coathanger."
>  >
>  > As coincidence would have it, when I was eleven, my mother whipped me
>  > with a wire coathanger for lying to her about whether I'd been
>  > smoking. We happened to be standing in front of a closet. She reached
>  > in, grabbed a coathanger, and whaled a
>  > while. (That's a pun, son. "Whale a while" is BE slang for "do
>  > something really, really well.") I didn't enjoy it.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > On 2/29/08, LanDi Liu <strangeguitars at gmail.com> wrote:
>  >
>  > >
>  > >  I don't think that's particularly Southern or black, as I've heard that a
>  > >  lot from all kinds of people, and probably have used it myself.  I take it
>  > >  as standard non-formal English.  I hear it more often as _jumping all over_
>  > >  me, though.
>  >
>  >
>
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--
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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