Jo Mama

ronbutters at AOL.COM ronbutters at AOL.COM
Fri Jun 3 12:10:09 UTC 2011


There is nothing special about any of these examples that I can see--nothing that differentiates BE from any other variety.

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 2, 2011, at 10:51 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 9:42 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> <waiting for the other shoe to drop>
>
> You'll be waiting a while.
>
> Heard on the tube, spoken by a white guy:
>
> "If you're going to look for them, _you'll be searching a while_. I'll
> help you."
>
>
> That struck me as having essentially the same semantic content as the
> BE string. A clear difference is that, in BE, the sentential stress
> falls heavily on the _while_:
>
> "You'll be searching a WHILE!"
>
> The white speaker said merely,
>
> "You'll be *searching* a while."
>
> Nevertheless, there seemed to be an implicatton of great, possibly
> unsuccessful effort, especially since the speaker states that he's
> going to help in the search.
>
> --
> -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.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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



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