[Lexicog] meaning and usage of "on me"

[Marc FRYD]

Dear Kenneth,
This form of "ethical dative" is also to be found in French (Ils ont été 
_lui _casser le guidon de sa bicyclette / ??they went and broke his 
bike's handlebar _on him_; Et pour couronner le tout, ils ont été lui 
convaincre son fils de s'enrôler dans l'armée / ??and to top it all, 
they went and convinced her son to join the army _on her_), and I 
believe a number of other languages (e.g. Spanish: Mi niño no me come / 
??my son refuses to eat _on me_). There would appear to be a strong 
(though perhaps not exclusively) detrimental justification to this 
structure (confirmed by your own examples).//
As regards English, I vaguely recollect reading smth to the effect that 
the 'on me' phrase was calqued on the Irish language.
Best,
Marc

Kenneth Keyes wrote:
>
> 
>
> Dear All,
>  
> Just a quick query. Have you thought about the phrase "on me" when 
> preceded by a verb?  Someone recently asked me about the meaning of 
> "on me". He quoted Harry Truman's statement regarding Gen. Douglas 
> MacArthur's insubordination: "I don't want him to resign *_on me_*, I 
> want him fired!" What do you think of the phrase "on me"? Is is a 
> transitivizer? What does it *_mean_*? This is different than its usual 
> meaning as preposition as in the famous "lean on me". I think it must 
> mean "without my permission", or "against my will". 
>  
> Here are some examples I thought of:
>  
> Don't leave *on me*.
> Don't quit *on me*.
> Don't up and marry *on me*.
> Don't die *on me*!
>  
> I hope he doesn't...on me.
> I'm afraid he might...on me.
>  
> Can you think of other examples? (Just a hint, using Google wasn't 
> very helpful.)
>  
> Is there a text corpus where we can specify "any verb [any tense, any 
> person, any number ]" followed by the phrase "on" followed by an 
> accusative/dative personal pronoun? How long can a phrasal verb 
> incorporating "on me" be?
>  
> I am fascinated by this question. I hope you are too. Many thanks in 
> advance,
>  
> Ken
>  
>  
>  


-- 
Dr. Marc FRYD
Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics

Faculté des Lettres et des Langues
Université de Poitiers
95 avenue du Recteur Pineau
86022, Poitiers, France

Office: 05 49 45 48 11
Cell: 06 76 28 18 50

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