"I'm gonna buy me a dog"

[Alexander Gross]

Don't worry about the "current climate," Suzette.  Anyway, you did _too_
offer evidence, the Ozarks count, just as much as any other language form.

Another possible example:

I wanna build me a whole new world of linguistics.

very best to all!

alex


----- Original Message -----
From: "Suzette Haden Elgin" <ocls at madisoncounty.net>
To: <FUNKNET at mailman.rice.edu>
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 8:52 AM
Subject: [FUNKNET] Re: "I'm gonna buy me a dog"


>
> September 25, 2004
>
> I hesitate to get into this, given the current climate and the fact that I
> can't offer evidence, but I guess I that's cowardly --  so here goes.
>
> "I'm gonna buy me a dog" is native for me ... part of my native Ozark
> English dialect. Where I live in rural northwest Arkansas I hear the
> construction constantly. I've tried to imagine a context in which I would
> say "I'm gonna run me a race," and I've failed; but I can certainly say
> "I'm gonna write me a novel." But for me, as a native speaker, the
> "me/myself" pairs just are not synonymous. I wouldn't say "I'm gonna buy
me
> a dog" and "I'm gonna buy myself a dog" interchangeably, and the
difference
> isn't simply the degree of formality.
>
> As I said, I can't offer evidence. However, my guess is that the "me" is
> resumptive and that it's related to the double-pronoun focus phenomenon --
> like the "he" in "Tom, he never offers a grammaticality judgment unless he
> can offer solid evidence with it."
>
> Suzette Haden Elgin
>
>
>