Heard on The Judges: sE > to BE

[Dennis Preston]

arnold,

I think I overlooked "them's the breaks": I'll go back to my list.

Thanks,

dInIs

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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges: sE > to BE
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>On Apr 8, 2008, at 10:33 AM, Dennis Preston wrote:
>
>>  Interesting when a specific nonstandard is felt to be required (as it
>>  often is from AAVE). Are there other regional nonstandards required
>>  in such phrases.
>
>well, not tied to a specific region, but "play it as it lays" (i
>posted on this on Language Log a long time ago).
>
>    http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000875.html
>
>and "them's the breaks".
>
>and then there's a bunch where auxiliary reduction is essentially
>obligatory: "how's the boy?" 'how are you?' [to a man] and a lot of
>others.  this isn't non-standard, though.
>
>arnold
>
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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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