Heard on The Judges: "give ... pay"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Tue May 13 19:53:36 UTC 2008


Heard on The Judges:

Forty-ish, black, female plaintiff:

"She was supposed to _give me pay_ $3600.00, altogether."


This is reminiscent of "tell me say." It even rhymes with it. However,
this could very well be merely a hesitation-insertion, so to speak,
made to emphasize the fact that the money was *owed* to the speaker
and not some kind of very generous gift from the defendant.

--
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



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