BE arrives at the Boston Globe?

[Tony Au]

I don't find that sentence to be an example of AAVE. I would read the
sentence so that -- and I would imagine the writer intended the sentence to
be read this way -- "done" is an adjective modifying "MRI" and not part of a
verbal phrase "done revealed." In other words, something like, "An MRI that
was done (i.e., ordered/conducted/performed/etc.) revealed that..."

This brings up the point of whether "done" is slightly redundant, since the
sentence has virtually the same meaning without "done."


On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 7:18 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      BE arrives at the Boston Globe?
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>
> I am amused by what I suppose is a writer's careless editing of his
> own sentence that brings AAVE to the sports pages of the Boston Globe
> (and I don't mean in quotations).  The "Sports Log" column, speaking
> of Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin's season-ending knee injury,
> says "An MRI done revealed that Griffin has 'an isolated tear' in his
> anterior cruciate ligament."
>
> Joel
>
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