Did with/did to (heard on NPR)

Barbara Need bhneed at GMAIL.COM
Wed Oct 20 10:24:21 UTC 2010


A report on NPR this morning about the anniversary of the confirmation
of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, said that Thomas' wife sent a
message (e-mail?) to Anita hill asking her to apologize for what she
"did with" Mr. Thomas.

My first reaction was to wonder if Mrs. Thomas thought that Ms. Hill
and Mr. Thomas had engaged in sex and was asking for an apology. If
she were asking Ms. Hill to apologize for having accused her husband,
I would have expected "did to." Are there dialects in which "did with"
would refer to the accusation rather than the act?

Barbara

Barbara Need
Ithaca

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list