BE "been VERB NP"
Wilson Gray
hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jun 30 23:37:34 UTC 2006
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
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