presidential nominative-objective

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:00 AM -0500 2/25/01, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>You've been X-in' for a Y-in' (achin' for a breakin', itchin' for a
>>bitchin') has almost proverbial "frame" status in my dialect.
>
>dInIs

I wonder if "cruisin for a bruisin" isn't the prime mover for these.
But I don't see "lookin to X/get Xed" as being part of this
pattern--for one thing, X might be a positive outcome.

larry

>
>>True, but how about, "You been lookin' for a whuppin', and I'm fixin' to
>>give you one"?
>>
>>bob
>>
>>>  From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>  Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 16:48:59 +0800
>>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>  Subject: Re: presidential nominative-objective
>>>
>>>
>>>  How about in "You lookin to get whupped?"  Seems pretty immediate.
>>>
>>>  Larry
>
>--
>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