<html><div>Can anybody paraphrase the following construction:</div>
<br>
<div> But he's gone and drowned his
dinner in syrup.</div>
<br>
<div>It occurs in Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD in the following
context:</div>
<br>
<div> Atticus shook his head at me again. "But
he's gone and drowned his dinner in syrup," I protested. "He's
poured it all over --"</div>
<br>
<div>A southern student in my "Dialect Voices in Literature"
class suggested that "gone and" is equivalent to PERFECT
"done" in this construction. However, another southern student
said she was not familiar with it. My African-American student had no
clue either. The rest of white American students in the class had no
idea. Can anybody on this list enlighten us?</div>
<br>
<div>Sali.</div>
<br>
<br>
<font color="#800000">**********************************************************<br>
Salikoko S.
Mufwene
</font><font color="#800080">s-mufwene@uchicago.edu<br>
</font><font color="#800000">University of
Chicago
</font><font color="#800080">773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924<br>
</font><font color="#800000">Department of Linguistics<br>
1010 East 59th Street<br>
Chicago, IL 60637<br>
</font><font color="#000000"><a href="http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html" eudora="autourl">http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html</a><br>
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