Not a Bushism

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:43 PM -0500 3/13/02, Duane Campbell wrote:
>But along the same lines. It's real simple.
>
>I write a weekly column, and I try to keep it colloquial. I often toss a
>folksy sounding phrase vs its canonical equivalent back and forth a dozen
>times before making up my mind. Or more likely sending it off at the most
>recent iteration because time ran out.
>
>I just did that with "It's real simple" vs "It's really simple."  The
>first just sounds right to me.
>
  I suspect these may go on a case by case basis.  For me, "real" is a
perfectly good colloquial adverb; no problem with saying "It's real
simple" or "I'm real tired", or writing it in a friendly note,
although I would change it to "really" if I were editing a scholarly
paper.  Similarly for "He runs too slow" or "You sure got here
quick".  But I can't imagine "He's speaking serious".  So to the
extent that "she's taking it serious" works, I think "serious" is
functioning as an adjective for the relevant speakers, as someone
suggested earlier in this thread.   (Note the subtle semantic
difference between "Now you're talking seriously" and "Now you're
talking serious".)

larry