dookie

[Mullins, Bill]

-----Original Message-----
From: Laurence Horn
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: 9/23/2004 7:01 PM

>>"Shit" can be a count noun, too.  "Take a shit" for example.
>>(although "leave a shit" would, strictly speaking, be more accurate)
>
>As your last observation indicates, _shit_ isn't *really* a count
>noun in _take a shit_, or a referential noun at all, but part of a
>"light verb" construction.  Compare _take a shower_, where "the
>shower" is part of the event, not an entity.   Note that (if you
>share my judgments) no relativization on these non-referential
>nominals is possible:
>
>The shit that the cat left on the floor got on my shoes.
>??The shit that you took got stuck in the toilet.
>
>but OK:
>Did the shit that you took make you feel better?
>
>--where the event, rather than the product, is referenced.  My
>judgments, anyway--YMMV.
>
>larry


That being the case (and your argument is persuasive), I wonder why so many
idiomatic synonyms for this action have the same form:

cop a squat
pinch a loaf
drop a steamer
drop a massive
take a dump