Hot news perfect question

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

Ah. As in "I done hit him with my car!"
------Original Message------
From: Benjamin Barrett
To: ronbutters at aol.com
Subject: Re: Hot news perfect question
Sent: Nov 17, 2009 2:50 PM

I should have mentioned that it can also be used to deliver an
exclamation about a recent event, hence "hot news perfect":

Wikipedia:
A similar construction is seen where exclamation is used in describing
a recent event:
    • "I'm after hitting him with the car!" Táim tar éis é a bhualadh
leis an gcarr!
    • "She's after losing five stone in five weeks!"

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Nov 17, 2009, at 7:32 AM, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:

>
> In my variety of American English, if one says, "I thought that X,"
> in response to someone else's assertion, the intended inference is a
> more or less polite contradiction. I think that that is what the
> "after knowing" constriction means. One could also use the
> pluperfect, but it is not the case that the "after knowing"
> construction means the same thing as the pluperfect.
>
> Why is this called "hot news"? Doesn't seem appropriate.
> ------Original Message------
> From: Gordon, Matthew J.
> Sender: ADS-L
> To: ADS-L
> ReplyTo: ADS-L
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Hot news perfect question
> Sent: Nov 17, 2009 10:12 AM
>
> I think that "I'm after knowing X" can mean "I've just found out X",
> but I'm no expert. Anyway this interpretation doesn't particularly
> make sense in the context you cite. Is there any reason to believe
> this is an authentic usage and not some "Mock Irish English"? After
> all, the after-perfect is a stereotype of Irish dialects along the
> lines of invariant 'be' for African American English, and the latter
> shows up all the time in grammatically inappropriate (per AAE
> grammar) contexts in made-up samples of African American usage (e.g.
> It be hot today).
>
> -Matt Gordon
>
>
> On 11/16/09 4:24 PM, "Benjamin Barrett" <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM> wrote:
>
> One page 355 of Harry Turtledove's_Ruled Britannia (Roc, Sept 2003),
> a novel of alternate history, he uses the form of the hot news
> perfect:
>
> -----
> "I'm for the Theatre," Shakespeare answered [in the morning].
> "Faith, are you indeed?" the [Irish guard] said. "Riddle my why, then.
> I'm **after knowing** these plays run of afternoons."
> "In sooth, they do," Shakespeare agreed.
> -----
>
> The Wikipedia page on Hiberno-English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English#Grammar_derived_from_Irish
> ) says that the hot news perfect is used as the pluperfect.
>
> Here the meaning is "To my knowledge, these plays run in the
> afternoon" or perhaps "As I have known, these plays run in the
> afternoon" which seems at odds with the Wikipedia explanation.
>
> Is there something else going on here?
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>


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