Taking Bush Serious(ly)

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

I guess I would question the assumption that an adverb is called for in this frame. Isn't this an object complement structure (or isn't it analyzable as such)? i.e. 'taking it (to be) serious'
Thus, the addition of -ly would represent a 'hypercorrection' similar to that heard in "to feel badLY about something". In this case, we wouldn't expect a regional distribution since people are poorly educated in traditional grammar all over the place.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Boatti
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: 3/3/2002 11:43 AM
Subject:      Taking Bush Serious(ly)

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