Heard in Missouri: "but good!"

[Dennis R. Preston]

Ron,

'Bad' don't modify 'good' in my sentence. 'Bad' is the adjectival
complement of "hurt him" and "good" is the adverbial modifier of the
VP + complements "hurt him bad." "Plumb good" (quantifier of adverb)
don't sound so bad to me, not no different from 'really good."

dInIs



>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
>Subject:      Re: Heard in Missouri: "but good!"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>But not "He hurt him plumb good"--at least, that sounds "wrong" to
>me. Is PLUMB an adverb that cannot modify another adverb (unlike
>BAD)?
>
>Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
>
>Date:         Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:07:55
>To:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] Heard in Missouri: "but good!"
>
>
>And in at least mock-hillbilly "He hurt him bad good."
>
>dInIs
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: Heard in Missouri: "but good!"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>But he hurt 'im bad.
>>
>>    JL
>>
>>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>>    ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: Laurence Horn
>>Subject: Re: Heard in Missouri: "but good!"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>At 6:08 PM -0800 12/19/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>OED has David Crockett killing a bear "good" in 1834 (_good_, ...adv. B.).
>>>
>>>   JL
>>
>>And we have independent evidence that he also kilt him a b'ar when he
>>was only three, which would have been in 1789 or thenabouts. But the
>>historical record doesn't show whether or not he kilt that one good.
>>
>>LH
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>"Arnold M. Zwicky" wrote:
>>>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
>>>Subject: Re: Heard in Missouri: "but good!"
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>On Dec 19, 2007, at 3:33 PM, David Donnell wrote:
>>>
>>>>   Pardon my asking: by "opaque idiom" what do you mean?
>>>
>>>all idoms are to some extend semantically opaque. these ("but good",
>>>"and how") are especially so: knowing the meanings of the words
>>>wouldn't help you at all in figuring out their meaning/use.
>>>
>>>>   I reckon you mean there is no literal sense to either idiom... (If
>>>>   so, I agree with you. Otherwise, please correct me.)
>>>
>>>yup.
>>>
>>>>   Also, below you say it's "general american. colloquial, but
>>>>   widespread."
>>>>
>>>>   Don't you find the expression a wee bit anachronistic? I mean, can
>>>>   you imagine any young adult using it nowdays? Just curious.
>>>
>>>you might be right; this is something someone could look at. but
>>>there seems to be (or have been) nothing particularly regional about it.
>>>
>>>>   Note: I don't have enough info to circumscribe usage of the
>>>>   expression--didn't mean to suggest it is regional. I simply reported
>>>>   the identity & location of the person using the expression. (My dear
>>>>   old ma.)
>>>
>>>i realize that this cuts both ways. if you don't give the details, we
>>>don't know how to situate the report. but whatever details you give,
>>>we'll take to be possibly relevant to the report.
>>>
>>>i picked up on the possibly regional part, because others did. my
>>>apologies.
>>>
>>>arnold
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>---------------------------------
>>>Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
>  >>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>>
>>---------------------------------
>>Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.
>>Try it now.
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>Morrill Hall 15-C
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
15C Morrill Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-4736
preston at msu.edu

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org