finna

[Terry Irons]

At the spring SECOL/LAVIS meeting, Mary Zeigler presented a compelling
analysis of finna entitled "'minna' and 'mfinna': Morphologizing BE
fixin to and BE goin to in Southern American English."  Her central
claim is that finna and minna are the result of a process of
grammaticalization in which the original phrasal auxiliary, through a
series of phonological changes, is no longer a morphophonemic
alternation of the original phrase, but is a new morphological form,
which has acquired a new meaning.  In this case, she argues that finna,
mfinna, and mo no longer carry simply temporal aspect but have developed
into quasi-modal forms that signal intentionality.



--
Virtually, Terry
(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)
Terry Lynn Irons        t.irons at morehead-st.edu
Voice Mail:             (606) 783-5164
Snail Mail:             UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351
(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)