missing

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Wednesday, January 30, 2002 6:33 pm -0500 Beverly Flanigan
<flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU> wrote:

> I'll add my own query about a new form--new to me at least:
> CNN (I think) had a topic line recently about the journalist who "went
> missing" in Pakistan.  Just a few days later I saw an article in our local
> paper about someone who would periodically "go to missing"--just leaving
> home for a while, apparently.
>
> Has this form been around long? and where?


It's pretty standard British, although I've had it for a long time before I
moved here--I don't know if I picked it up from South Africa or earlier
than that from movies/books/friends with affectations.

I always like it when I can find proof of recent UKEng crossing over to the
US, since I take such hell for all the Americanisms coming into the UK!

Lynne


Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
Acting Director, MA in Applied Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320