bees

[Tom Payne]

The regularized inflected "be" may also exist in AAVE, but this is not
the source of the example I cited or the ones cited by Alan Dench. I
believe there is something about the regular inflection of this verb,
and perhaps others, that is particularly suited to the "volitional"
connotation.

Tell me, is it my imagination or does a clause like "he knowed the
answer" sound more like something someone might *do to* an answer than a
state the subject is in? (I don't like "speculative linguistics" either,
but what the heck, there hasn't been much traffic on Funknet recently .
. .)
_____________________________________________________________________
Thomas E. Payne, Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403, USA
Voice: 541 342-6706. Fax:   541 346-3917
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