whuppin'-- or, presidential nominative-objective

[Natalie Maynor]

Beth Lee Simon wrote:

> I'm lookin' to have little talk with X -- I intend to find X and have
> some words and get a few things out in the open
> vs
> I'm fixin' to have a little talk with X -- I intend for X to come to an
> understanding.

I still see it mainly as a matter of timing.  "Fixing to" means
I'm going to do it very soon -- like within minutes usually.  If
somebody says "I'm fixin' to have a little talk with X," X is
presumably close around and this talk is on the verge of occurring.
Nothing about the results of the talk is implied to me.  "I'm lookin'
to have a little talk with X" is a bit vaguer.  When this talk will
occur isn't specified, nor does it suggest to me that the speaker
is going to set out to find X.  It may be that he/she plans to have
this little talk with X if they happen to run into each other somewhere.
   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)