nom. for acc. (again)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Several hits for "till death do he/ she/ I part" as well.



Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Beverly Flanigan
Subject: Re: nom. for acc. (again)
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Amazing! Until the other day, I had never heard (or seen) any of these
citations! Guess I don't watch enough television.
But what is a "long-leaping" line? A metrical term, I assume?

At 10:58 PM 8/27/2007, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Wilson Gray
>Subject: Re: nom. for acc. (again)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>"Till death do we part" is also the last, long-leaping line of a
>'Fifties R&B love song. (The textbook that we used for Homeric Greek
>in high school described
>
>Hos hoi g'amphiepon taphon Hektoros hippodomoio
>"Thus they carried out the burial of horse-taming Hector"
>
>as "the last, long-leaping line of The Iliad.")
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 8/27/07, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
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> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
> > Subject: Re: nom. for acc. (again)
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Aug 27, 2007, at 11:36 AM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
> >
> > > I saw this hypercorrection switcheroo today in a syndicated newspaper
> > > article on a released prisoner: The ex-prisoner said his wife had
> > > stuck
> > > with him because they had sworn "Till death do we part." Amusing, if
> > > impossible.
> > >
> > > Then again, maybe it's not the usual hypercorrection. Since the
> > > subjunctive mood of the frozen phrase is probably no longer
> > > understood, the
> > > speaker (many, perhaps?) may have thought 'we' and 'do' must agree
> > > since
> > > 'death' and 'do' couldn't. I use a couple of such frozen phrases
> > > in class
> > > to illustrate syntactic change, and students often can't explain the
> > > structures even though they know the phrases "by heart":
> > > So be it
> > > Be that as it may
> > > Albeit
> > > Would that it were so
> > > And more word order inversion:
> > > With this ring I thee wed
> > > etc.
> >
> > surely the right analysis. speakers are making the verb agreement
> > "look right", even though it doesn't really make sense -- but then
> > it's a fixed expression, and they don't *have to* make sense.
> >
> > tens of thousands of webhits for "do we part", taking in "till/til'/
> > til/until death ..." a CSI:Miami episode "Til Death Do We
> > Part" (2005), a Murphy Brown episode "Till Death or Next Wednesday Do
> > We Part" (1992), a Tales From the Crypt episode "Till Death Do We
> > Part" (1993), a Tonya Dee song "Death Do We Part" (1961), a book "Til
> > What Do We Part: A Wedding Planner for the Etiquette Impaired", a San
> > Francisco Family Law Blog "'Til Prenup Do We Part", a blog entry
> > "Until [Johnny] Depp Do We Part", a Milwaukee television news story
> > "Til Debt Do We Part", and much, much more.
> >
> > arnold
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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