"I'm gonna get me a dog"

[Suzette Haden Elgin]

Clancy Clements wrote:
The term 'ethical dative' is often used to name a similar phenomenon in
Spanish, of the type

Se      ME              murio'  el      gato.
EMPH   1sg-dative       died    the     cat
'My cat died on me.'

Esta    nena            no      me              come.
this    little.girl     NEG     1sg-dative      eats
'This little girl is not wanting to eat (for me).'

In Spanish, it seems more frequently in 1st and 2nd person than in
3rd. I don't know if anyone has studied the distribution of this in
English. It'd be interesting to know whether the distribution is sensitive
to person and number distinctions.
======

Ozark English also has the "on me" construction, as in "My cat died on me"
and "My barn burned down on me" and "This little girl is going all weird on
me and not wanting to eat" and so on. But I see no connection between that
construction and the "me" in "I'm gonna get me a dog." Nor do I see
anything "ethical" about the "me" in "I'm gonna get me a dog." Perhaps
"ethical" is like "competence," and has a technical meaning I'm unaware
of....

Dr. Clements ask whether the construction is sensitive to person and number
distinctions; here's a range of examples.

"I got me a new pickup truck yesterday."
"We got us a new pickup truck yesterday."

"You better get you a new pickup truck pretty soon."
"You got you a new pickup truck, sure, but you didn't pay your mortgage."
"Go get you some supper before it gets cold."

"He got him a new pickup truck yesterday."
"She got her a new pickkup truck yesterday."

[Note: I'm hesitant about "They got them a new pickup truck yesterday," but
have no idea why; something tells me that one has to go to the reflexive,
which of course means I'd have to choose between "themselves" and
"theirselves."  Maybe it's just example fatigue, from running through the
set?

Well.  I've got me this example that's gone funny-sounding on me.

Suzette