BE arrives at the Boston Globe?

[Tom Zurinskas]

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Seems like a case of word skipping.
=20
We often skip the word "that" in sentences=2C e.g.=2C "We know (that) we wa=
nt to go."  This sentence below skips "that was" i.e.=2C "An MRI (that was)=
 done revealed that Griffin has ..."
=20
This relates to plurals=2C i.e.=2C "There's (a bunch of) cats on the lawn."=
  The collective noun is skipped with "There's cats on the lawn."  A case o=
f word skipping. =20
=20
I also agree that "there's" (~thairz) is a lot easier to say than "there're=
" (thairer)=2C a convenient facile-ity.  I do it all the time.  There's (a =
bunch of) good reasons.
=20

Tom Zurinskas=2C USA - CT20=2C TN3=2C NJ33=2C FL7+
see truespel.com phonetic spelling





>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------=
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> Sender: American Dialect Society=20
> Poster: "Joel S. Berson"=20
> Subject: Re: BE arrives at the Boston Globe?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
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>
> At 9/29/2009 09:54 AM=2C Laurence Horn wrote:
>>At 9:04 PM -0800 9/28/09=2C David Bowie wrote:
>>>From: "Joel S. Berson"=20
>>>
>>>>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=2C speaking
>>>>of Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin's season-ending knee injury=2C
>>>>says "An MRI done revealed that Griffin has 'an isolated tear' in his
>>>>anterior cruciate ligament."
>>>
>>>Recognizing Tony Au's point that this might not be completive 'done'=2C
>>>even if it is it might not be AAVE--it exists in Southern White
>>>Englishes as well=2C including my own.
>>I agree with Tony on this=3B note that an inserted "yesterday" just
>>after "done" removes any possible misinterpretation ("An MRI done
>>yesterday revealed that...").
>
> But "yesterday" is *not* in the original=2C which is "An MRI done
> revealed that Griffin has 'an isolated tear' in his
> anterior cruciate ligament."
>
> This is exactly to my comment -- perhaps from the writer's
> unintentionally omitting "yesterday"=2C or from his not writing "An MRI
> done *on Griffin* revealed that he has ..."=2C the result looks like
> AAVE. (In my dialect=2C in this sentence "done" requires a -- what
> would it be called? -- prepositional object.)
>
> That "Southern White Englishe[r]s" also may use the same construction
> does not invalidate the possibility that the writer is speaking AAVE
> -- it merely adds another possibility. But I think a writer's error
> is much more likely=3B I was not claiming that the sentence was AAVE=2C
> merely that an error made it appear to be.
>
> Joel
>
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