"can I get a..."

[Grant Barrett]

I haven't read anything on the subject, but in New York City another
variation is, "Let me have the five-piece chicken" or "Let me get the
Double Whopper." It comes out, "lemme," of course.

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
http://www.doubletongued.org/

The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English (May 2006, McGraw-Hill)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071458042/


On Jun 4, 2006, at 07:34, Lynne Murphy wrote:

> Can anyone tell me if anything's been written about "can I get a" as a
> request form, as in "Can I get a double decaf cappuccino?"?
>
> It's one of those things that's derided here as Americanism--with two
> Englishmen I've talked to saying that it sounds like the customer
> is asking
> to come to the other side of the counter and make themselves a coffee.
> It's stereotypically associated with Starbucks culture and revival
> meetings
> ("Can I get a witness?" "Can I get an 'amen'?")--both pretty American
> institutions.
>
> I ask because I've just started a blog about US/UK dialectal
> differences
> that I run into on a daily basis.  If you're interested, it's at:
>
> http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
>
> tata,
> Lynne
>
> Dr M Lynne Murphy
> Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
> Arts B133
> University of Sussex
> Brighton BN1 9QN
>
> phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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