Different dialects, same error

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 4, 2004, at 4:43 PM, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Different dialects, same error
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> Existenetial 'it' is actually pretty widespread in white southern
>> speech, although more often noted by linguists for AAVE. Yes, I come
>> by it native(ly), as I clearly do not come by -ly.
>
> There are, however, restrictions in the dialects which I have never
> quite got the handle on. Some AAVE existential it's are out of bounds
> for me, but I haven't analyzed them.
>
> For example, "It ain't nobody named Windy" sounds really good to me
> but "It's a man in the other room" (on the existential reading, of
> course) don't.

dInIs, here's a verse from a '60's blues song for your reading
enjoyment.

Raise your window, baby.
I ain't going out that door.
_It's a man downstairs_.
He could be your man.
I don't know.

FWIW, the late, great Ken Hale used existential it. So, I don't think
that it's necessarily a BE or a Southern phenomenon.

-Wilson Gray

>
> On the other hand, it's only on this ADS list where I actually not
> only tolerate but even perform breakage of Preston's Laws of
> Sociolinguistics #1 and #2.
>
> dInIs
>
>
>
>> Is existential 'it' native to your speech, DInIs, or is this an AAVE
>> borrowing for you?
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Dennis R. Preston
>> Sent: Sat 9/4/2004 3:13 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject:      Re: Different dialects, same error
>>
>> Of course since it ain't nobody (leastways nobody I ever knowed)
>> named "Windy," I never took it to be nothing but "Wendy," even in the
>> face of the pragmatic evidence of "stormy eyes."
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African
> Languages
> A-740 Wells Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824
> Phone: (517) 432-3099
> Fax: (517) 432-2736
> preston at msu.edu
>