Re: [ADS-L] all of the sudden, one at the time, still in the bed

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Your arguments are pretty compelling. It could well be that I simply assumed 
that the seemingly unfamiliar constructions were regional rather than simply 
variable and mostly (apparently) below the level of consciousness. It is also 
possible that the "a" variable is historically dominant and that there is some 
kind of change that has taken place in the last 40 years in which the "the" 
variable gathers strength. This would take a lot more reasearch than I have time 
to do right now, but in any case it is an interesting variable and worth 
spending some time on.


In a message dated 9/6/06 11:57:42 PM, zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU writes:


> On Sep 6, 2006, at 8:14 AM, Ron Butters wrote:
> 
> > I suggested earlier that ALL OF THE SUDDEN is a USA Southernism.
> 
> yes, but that seems extraordinarily unlikely, given the spread of the
> cites.  at least if "Southernism" is taken in its strong sense,
> meaning 'primarily found in the South'.
> >
> 
> > ...That is just anecdotal evidence, as is my observation that I
> > first began
> > noticing this usage when I moved to North Carolina in 1967 (from
> > Iowa) and assumed
> > it was a dialect thing,
> 
> well, that could be a fact about you rather than about the usage.  i
> didn't recall having noticed it until last week myself, and the
> original querier had first noticed it in delaware (after having lived
> for some years in charlotte, n.c.) and so thought it might be a
> philadelphia/delaware valley thing.   you both are generalizing from
> your first conscious experience of the expression, and that
> generalization is very likely to be mistaken.
> 
> it is just possible that it's a "weak Southernism" -- a very
> widespread item that nevertheless is especially frequent in the
> South.  (does anyone else make a distinction between a weak Xism and
> a strng Xism, for some region or social group X?)
> 
> > just like ONE AT THE TIME (which I began also to hear
> > here in NC in 1967),
> 
> despite all kinds of junk, i got four instances in the first hundred
> hits for <"one at the time">.  and then a bunch more when i specified
> the verb.  of these nine cites, one was from here at stanford, two
> were canadian, two were from advice about manners ("speak one at the
> time"), and two were physicists (with lightpaths and photons arriving
> "one at the time"), and one was a spanish researcher writing in the
> Oxford journal Human Reproduction.
> 
> i very much doubt that this is a strong Southernism.
> 
> > ... I have a vague memory that these alternative uses of the
> > definite article
> > have been commented on in print (American Speech? Dialect Notes?
> > DARE? Mencken?).
> 
> i was hoping this was so.  not an easy thing to search for, though.
> 
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> 
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