BE "been VERB NP"

[Beverly Flanigan]

It's John and Angela Rickford, in a joint article from the late '70s?  But
Labov discusses it too, in "Is BEV a Separate Language?" (maybe not the
exact title); it's also in the _Language in the Inner City_ volume
(1972).  They don't cite BEEN + past tense (or past participle) though.  I
tested it on a black student this spring, and he knew the difference the
stress on 'been' made in meaning.

At 07:37 PM 6/30/2006, you wrote:
>Is it John Rickford or John Baugh who owns this construction? I've
>lost track, over the years. In any case, whichever John it is has such
>command over it that this is the first time that I've gone public with
>the fact that, except for John's examples, I have *never* heard, e.g.
>"I BEEN _know_ that." I'm personally familiar only with "I BEEN
>_knowing_ that" or even simply, "knowing this." Today, on one of the
>"Judge" shows, I heard, for the first time, a black speaker - or a
>speaker of any other race, creed, color, or sexual orientation, for
>that matter - say, "She BEEN _knew_ that."
>
>-Wilson Gray
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org