Taking Bush Serious(ly)

[Steve Boatti]

On Friday on the radio news, a recording of Pres. Bush was played, in which
he said the following about the "shadow government": "This is serious
business, and we are taking it serious . . .ly." By his inflection, it
sounded as if he meant to end the sentence at "serious," then suddenly
remembered his rules of grammar and quickly added the adverbial suffix.

My first reaction (after laughing out loud), probably influenced by his
accent, was that he was exhibiting a regionalism in dropping the suffix. But
I certainly have heard New Yorkers doing the same thing. So I wonder if this
is a "classism" -- a pattern exhibited by people of certain socioeconomic
levels. Of course, Bush has a high level of education and wealth, but he
likes to recast himself as a "good ole' boy." Any research on the prevalence
of dropping the adverbial "ly" suffix among different socioeconomic or
regional groups?

Steve Boatti