Bogoyvalenskiy, D

[Beverly Flanigan]

We recently discussed this distinction on the American Dialect Society
listserv, and we agreed that "You did good" could mean what you suggest
(noun=a good thing/deed) but that it usually doesn't in its current
idiomatic usage.  It's a congratulatory comment, after, e.g., a good sports
play or a good exam score, and even (!) professors use it, though in a
somewhat jocular manner (in what Gumperz called a metaphoric switch to
colloquial usage).  There's clearly no misunderstanding the speaker's meaning.

Similarly, I agree that there's no misunderstanding in the German usage,
but my recollection is that "gut" is now the general adverb except in
expression of emotion, as in your example.  The performative adverb would
be 'gut', I believe--but let's hear from a native speaker!

At 05:18 PM 8/14/01 +0100, you wrote:
> > The adverbial use of "good" in the States may have begun as a dialect
> > variant, but it is now simply idiomatic in certain phrases:  "You did
> > good," and after "How are you?" "I'm good, how are you?"  But hasn't the
> > same change occurred with German "gut"?  Isn't "wohl" reserved mainly for
> > idioms like "Leb wohl"?  Such regularization is not unusual; adverbial -ly
> > is also falling away in many dialects:  "Go slow," "Do you say this
> different?"
>
>I don't think that "you did good" uses good as an adverb, rather a noun, as
>in "let's do some good".  The fact that people may consider this in an
>adverbial sense is probably a misunderstanding.
>
>Also from a German perspective, I think the context is understood to the
>native speaker.  I'm no native speaker, but I believe that answering 'gut'
>would be implicitly considered "mir geht's gut" (i.e. goes well with me).
>
>Wohl would be different from gut (just as well is different from good)
>e.g. ich
>fuhle mich wohl.
>
>Jon
>
> > >At 18:06 13.08.2001 +0100, you wrote:
> > > >Don't Americans say "I did good" - I hear them say in response to
> > > >"how are you"  = "Good" and it is creeping into British english too,
> > > >replacing "well".  I've heard anecodatlly bestest, betterest amd
> > > >gooder but never goodest..
> > > >Annette
> > > >
> > >
> > >Thank you for this -- I never heard that. This might make it more
> plausible
> > >that those using "I did better" are somehow aware of the relationship
> to "I
> > >did good".
> > >Of course, understanding "well" really well involves understanding the
> > >relationship of the adverb to the adjective. Could it be that the
> > >increasing usage of the adjective rather than the adverb is due to a
> > >certain uneasiness with this irregularity? Maybe, for speakers, "well" is
> > >somehow too remote from "good" to be used with the same ease (in contexts
> > >where something "good" is to be expressed), so they increasingly prefer
> > >"good"?! (I'm not too familiar with the mechanisms of language change --
> > >I'm just speculating!)
> > >- Thora
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >http://www.spatial-cognition.de
> > >
> > >
> > >---------------------------------------------
> > >
> > >Thora Tenbrink
> > >Spatial Cognition Priority Program & WSV
> > >Universitaet Hamburg
> > >FB Informatik
> > >Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30
> > >D-22527 Hamburg
> > >
> > >Tel.: +49/*40/42883-2382
> > >Fax:  +49/*40/42883-2385
> > >e-mail: tenbrink at informatik.uni-hamburg.de
> > >http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WSV/hp/tenbrink-english.htm
> >
> >


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm