Missing PREP differing by dialect

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> At 9:16 AM -0400 4/3/08, Charles Doyle wrote:
> >Arnold, what I did mention in my note in AS 52(1977):28 was "shit"
> >+/- "in" + "one's pants."
>
> Ah, I still get the <+/- affectedness> distinction there.  If he shit
> in his pants, a bit of scrubbing followed by detergent and the hot
> water setting might do the trick.  If he shit his pants, best to just
> toss 'em out.  (Talk about putting the "object" back in "direct
> object"...)

I feel this conversation wouldn't be complete without a mention of the
classic Saturday Night Live pseudo-commercial for the adult diaper
known as "Oops! I Crapped My Pants"...

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/98/98aoops.phtml


--Ben Zimmer

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