Heard on tonight's Without a Trace

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:16 PM +0800 2/29/08, LanDi Liu wrote:
>I don't think that's particularly Southern or black, as I've heard that a
>lot from all kinds of people, and probably have used it myself.  I take it
>as standard non-formal English.

Ditto.

>  I hear it more often as _jumping all over_
>me, though.

For me, "What are you jumping on me for?" is as unexceptional as
"...jumping all over..."  No implication that anyone's bones are
being jumped (even in contexts lacking the incest angle).

LH

>
>On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Heard on tonight's Without a Trace
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  The show is set in New York City.
>>
>>  Ex-con white mother to shoplifting son:
>>
>>  "What are you *doing*?! Are you *crazy*?!"
>>
>>  Son replies:
>>
>>  "What are you _jumping on_ *me* for?! *You* did it [broke the law], too!"
>>
>>  Of course, the *writer* could be Southern or black.
>>
>>  -Wilson
>>  --
>>  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
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
>--
>Randy Alexander
>Jilin City, China
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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