Come with

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 03:40 PM 8/29/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>>I said:
>>
>>>I understood it, but I share Wilson's desire for support for the hypothesis.
>>>This seems to me to be very, very far from the implicit 2s. SUBJECT of an
>>>imperative. Are there any known such cases?
>>
>>Larry answered:
>>
>>         >>>
>>%Can I come with? [when it's clear that the addressee is the missing
>>object]
>>
>>Of course, this isn't specifically "YOU understood", but any object
>>in the appropriate context (for the appropriate dialect).
>>         <<<
>>
>>Distinguo. In addition to your "of course",
>>
>>2. That is the object of a preposition, not of the verb.
>>
>>3. This collocation, "come with", is idiomatic; the construction is not
>>productive.
>>
>>-- Mark, still waiting for evidence
>
>How widespread is come with? I first encountered it in Milwaukee
>(1982) and then heard it in Chicago (after 1984). I assumed (and was
>told) it was related to the German Kommst du mit?
>
>Barbara

I say it all the time--Minnesota born and bred, where Scandinavians and
Germans commonly use it.  The two-part Germanic verb seems the logical
antecedent.  We've discussed this before--archives, anyone?