"you pays your money"

[Joanne M. Despres]

One imporant locus for this quotation -- I've always assumed that it
was the original one, but now I'm not so sure -- is from Twain's
Huckleberry Finn.  Huck, Jim, the Duke and the King land in some
southern town (maybe in Arkansas?) where a family awaits the
arrival of two far-flung, previously unmet cousins upon the death of
a local relative whose estate is being divided up.  The King and the
Duke, being expert con artists, have been impersonating the
cousins for some time (the King at one point engages in  this
hilarious malapropism-laced monologue about "funeral orgies")
when the REAL cousins suddenly arrive, I believe during the actual
funeral.  At that point, someone in the astonished and confused
funeral party remarks, "you pays your money and you makes your
choice."

I'll find that passage and send it along.

Joanne

On 16 Aug 2007, at 11:15, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> Thanks.  I taught that article for years but couldn't recall which of many
> Gumperz pieces gave the definition.  (It's shifty anyway; Fishman defines
> it differently, I believe.)  And thanks too for the transcription
> correction; of course it's dInIs!
>
> BTW, when I define the term, I sometimes quote an example from Larry Horn,
> who once on this list used both "sho' nuff" and "mutatis mutandis" in the
> same comment!  Half the class doesn't understand the first one, and no one
> understands the second.
>
> Beverly
>
> At 05:00 PM 8/15/2007, you wrote:
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> >Subject:      Re: "you pays your money"
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >On Aug 15, 2007, at 12:24 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
> >
> > > ... they should be able to tell it isn't authentic
> > > in me but is used for effect (what Gumperz, I think, calls "metaphoric
> > > code-switching").
> >
> >J. P. Blom & J. J. Gumperz, Code-switching in Norway, in Dell Hymes,
> >Directions  in Sociolinguist0ics (1972)
> >
> > > Our friend dinis, on the other hand, can apparently get
> > > away with this more than I can, assuming leveling etc. are part of his
> > > authentic childhood (and adult?) voice.
> >
> >ah, but dInIs has Linguistic License (issued to him, i believe, forty
> >years ago in wisconsin).
> >
> >arnold
> >
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>
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