from the movie Dragonfly (2002)

Cohen, Gerald Leonard gcohen at MST.EDU
Mon Jan 7 16:23:44 UTC 2008


A possible contributing factor here may be anticipation: The first "you" of "You either are or you're not" changes to "you're" by anticipation of "you're" a few words later. So when Arnold correctly says "a complex kind of blend," the complexity may be explained by the anticipation just mentioned.  
 
Gerald Cohen

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Arnold M. Zwicky
Sent: Sun 1/6/2008 9:46 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: from the movie Dragonfly (2002)

[imdb] Quotes:. Dr. Charlie Dickenson [played by Kevin Costner]: Death
is like being pregnant; You're either are or you're not.

   you're either pregnant or you're not + you either are [pregnant] or
you're not

a complex kind of blend.

arnold

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list