Can you feature that!?

[Beverly Flanigan]

This would suggest the usage is not regional but rather generational and
maybe gender-based?
I know my Minnesota mother used it, and I think I have on occasion too,
though maybe not lately.  And disapproval would not necessarily be implied;
incredulity or disbelief, mild or strong, would.

At 08:41 AM 4/17/00 -0400, you wrote:
>This meaning of 'feature' is in all the standard dictionaries, labelled
>"Informal" or "Slang" in some.  It may be that the notion of "disapproving
>incredulity" is in fact not central to the meaning as it is understood by
>the majority of users, but that the degree of disapproval would be expressed
>in the context and intonation (if spoken).
>
>Victoria
>
>Merriam-Webster, Inc. P.O. Box 281
>Springfield, MA 01102
>Tel: 413-734-3134  ext 124
>Fax: 413-827-7262
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> > Of Rudolph C Troike
> > Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 1:24 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Can you feature that!?
> >
> >
> > I agree with Robert Kelly's interpretation; the quoted DARE definition (I
> > didn't check it myself) is too spare to derive the sense of disapproving
> > incredulity implied. Interesting how an important implication
> > might be lost
> > in a dictionary definition.
> >         I am certainly familiar with the usage from south Texas, but I
> > can't identify any particular source, though it sounds a bit old fashioned
> > and primarily female.
> >
> >         Rudy
> >


_____________________________________________
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