all of the sudden, one at the time, still in the bed

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:16 PM -0500 9/6/06, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>
>For "all of the sudden" there's the possibility of a blend: "all of
>a sudden" + "out of the blue."
>

Possibility, yes; plausibility, I'm not so sure.  Why "out of the
blue" in particular?  Is there any evidence a speaker is actually
confusing the two, or thinking of them simultaneously?  Do we ever
find "out of a blue"?  ("Out of a/the clear blue sky" maybe, but
that's not quite the same.)

>  For "still in  the bed" (and perhaps someone already mentioned
>this) there's the possibility of German influence: "noch im Bett" (=
>still in bed; literally: still in the bed).
>
Or French ("dans le lit"), or probably a lot of languages that don't
have a zero determiner in this sort of context.  But this is a sort
of dialect variation independently found in English, as in the
previously commented on distinction between U.S. "in the hospital"
and U.K. "in hospital", and of course the many instances in which
there's a semantic/pragmatic difference between "in/on/at X" and
"in/on/at the X" (where X = school, university, church,...).  In fact
I would distinguish between my finding you (still) in bed [if you
normally spend time there] and my going into your room and finding
you in bed vs. finding a stranger, or a mouse, in the bed (not in
bed) there.

LH

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