Heard on The Judges: _for to_ VP

[Wilson Gray]

Thirty-ish, black female speaker living in Youngstown, OH:

"I ain't riding in no hooptie with no *bungee cord* _for to_ hold up
the bumper!"

...

Thirty-ish, black male speaker, likewise living in Y-town:

When I be trying to drive, she be tickling _on_ me, like this." [demonstrating]

Judge Greg Mathis:

"Were you really tickling _on_ him like that?"


So, I assume that the judge found nothing strange about this syntactic
structure.


I'm fairly certain that I'd long heard people speak this way, but it
didn't grab my attention till Buddy Johnson & His Orchestra, With [his
real-life] Sister Ella On Vocals, released Hittin' _On_ Me in 1953:

I don't want
No man
Always
_Hittin' on_
Me


Probably because "hit on" already had the slang meaning, "approach for
a sexual or other favor." There was a certain amount of cognitive
dissonance involved in reconciling the two meanings of "hit on," since
the song was about a woman who wouldn't take an ass-whipping from a
man and then not do anything about it.

--Wilson
–––
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.
–Mark Twain

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