Already use < Spanish ya?

[Mark Mandel]

I don't hear it as odd at all. "I want to X" implies that the speaker
is not yet X-ing, and "already S" implies that S is true, possibly
contrary to expectations. I don't know what's behind the ellipsis, but
it's no long jump from "I'm not yet X-ing" to "You're not X-ing".
Making fun of handicapped people is taboo, but the point here is that
there's (already) at least one handicapped person who it's NOT taboo
to mock, so "You already can."

Mark Mandel



On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 10:20 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Honduran-Mexican Ned Mencia (aka Carlos Mencia), raised in Los
> Angeles, has a rerun of "Mind of Mencia" tonight "Performance
> Enhanced". The advertisement is (or something close to):
>
> "I want to make fun of handicapped people...You already can. Our
> president's retarded."
>
> This "already" sounds odd to me. If it's not common use, it occurred
> to me that maybe it's from Spanish "ya". BB

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