Missing PREP differing by dialect

Thu Apr 3 13:44:22 UTC 2008

On Apr 3, 2008, at 6:16 AM, Charlie Doyle wrote:

> Arnold, what I did mention in my note in AS 52(1977):28 was "shit"
> +/- "in" + "one's pants."

ah yes, i see it now, in between "work (at)" and "depart (from)".
sorry to have overlooked it.

> A native (and lifelong) speaker of a "Southern" dialect, I had never
> heard "shit" used without a preposition ("in" or "on") until I was
> middle aged.

i have no idea about my own experience, though i once had the idea
that the zero variants were mostly british.  for what it's worth, i
see that "pissed his pants" beats out "pissed in his pants" pretty
handily on google, and that "shit his pants" beats out "shit in his
pants" by a gigantic margin.

arnold

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