tautology a go-go

[Dennis R. Preston]

Well, it's good, but it's not great. My favorite (in this genre) comes from
a (reported, hopefully authentic) case of an argument in whicn one
participant spluttered in exasperation:

you- you- you- you

and the other responded

Don't you you me you you you.

The last sentence is a really neat one to have students parse. (And it
really teaches you what verb is.)

dInIs

PS: I've often got 'huhs?' from this sentence in written form, and, without
intonation and stress, it might be opaque. Try the following frame:

Don't you tease me you bully you.





>LOL!  Oh my lord!  Who said it?  Who said it?  And did anyone out there tape
>it?  This important moment in broadcasting eloquence needs to be preserved.
>On the net.  On Real Player.  I wanna hear it.
>
>bob
>
>> From: "Steve K." <stevek at SHORE.NET>
>> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 13:51:14 -0400
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: tautology a go-go
>>
>> On NBC last night, they had one of their fuzzy, warm segments called
>> "Olympic Moments."
>>
>> As a prelude to the story, one of the guys said something like "Sometimes
>> you find the story, and sometimes the story finds you. And when a story
>> that finds you finds you, it really finds you."
>>
>>
>> --- Steve K.


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736