[Ads-l] On the Waterfront: dialect clash

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yeah! "Looking at television"!

*There's* a blast from the past! (I.e., 1950s in my x-perience).

JL

On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 8:26 AM, David Daniel <dad at coarsecourses.com> wrote:

> What I find most interesting here is that you said you looked at the movie
> on YouTube. I would have said I watched it on YouTube. I do remember as a
> kid some folks would say they were looking at television - whereas I was
> watching it - but I always thought it was just a few folks being odd. Now I
> find there is a Lion of Language who says it too. Interesting!
> DAD
>
> Enviada em: quinta-feira, 21 de setembro de 2017 00:53
> Para: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Assunto: On the Waterfront: dialect clash
>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      On the Waterfront: dialect clash
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------
> ---
>
> Surprising as it may seem, I had never seen this famous movie until last
> weekend, when I looked at it on YouTube. But, as does everyone else, I know
>
> =E2=80=9CI could have been a contender. I could have been somebody,
> instead=
> of what I am, which is nobody=E2=80=9D
>
> and I was waiting to hear it =E2=80=9Cin the flesh,=E2=80=9D as it were.
>
> And, when I did, I was shocked, shocked! For some reason, I=E2=80=99d
> alway=
> s assumed that the second sentence would be spoken as,
>
> A) =E2=80=9CI coulda BEEN somebody, instedda what I am, which is
> NObody.=E2=
> =80=9D
>
> But I was taken off guard, because what I heard was,
>
> B) =E2=80=9CI coulda been SOMEbody, instedda what I am, which is
> NObody.=E2=
> =80=9D
>
> The contrast between _SOMEbody_ and _NObody_ is almost Homeric in its
> clarity. Yet, somehow, A just feels =E2=80=9Cright" to me.
>
> --=20
> -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
>
>
> ---
> Este email foi escaneado pelo Avast antivírus.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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