dialect in novels

[Dennis R. Preston]

>>Not at all. On one reading "gotta" and "got to" are fully
>>synonymous; "going to go" and "gonna" are, of course, not
>>comparable.

dInIs





>>there is a child character in it who uses "gonna" and "gotta" a lot.  I did
>>this (I thought), not to denigrate the child, particularly, but to bring
>>home to the reader that the child is nine or ten years old. In this case,
>>I'm not sure it would be denigrating, since children grow up.  But I
>>wouldn't use "eye dialect" for much of anything else.
>>Anne G
>
>In speech, 'gonna' and 'gotta' are lexically distinct from 'going to' and
>'got to'. These spellings, while unofficial, reflect actual usage, and in
>the case of 'gotta', is disambiguative.
>
>I'm gonna go to London = I intend to go to London
>I'm going to London = I am travelling to London
>
>I gotta go to London = I must go to London (modal auxiliary)
>I got to go to London = I had an opportunity to go to London
>
>'Usta', as in 'used to' vs. 'usta' is not quite as fully established.
>
>A box he usta store stuff in (formerly and no longer: modal)
>A box he used to store stuff in
>
>
>
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--
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