dropped 's

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/27/2011 02:21 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 3:13 PM +0000 4/27/11, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>>In the below passage the 's is not pronounced
>>three times (she's, mother's, she's).  Where
>>that from?
>>
>>"She my mother sister and I used to call her
>>'Auntie [Ejn.ti < [An.ti]Rainey,' (sounded like
>>"ANE teeRAINY") but now, since she suing me,
>>Ijust call her 'Lorraine'."
>
>If you're asking seriously (or even if you're
>not), these are separate phenomena. There's no
>general case of "not pronouncing 's".  The first
>and third are zero copula, Ø corresponding to
>"standard" 's or (less often) 're.  The second is
>zero-marked (or word-order marked) possessive (or
>genitive).  Both are characteristic of, but not
>limited to, AAVE.
>
>LH

I'm very confused.  Why isn't this more simply
"She, my mother sister, and I used to call her
'Auntie" ..."?  In which case, only "my mother
sister" has a dropped 's (from "mother").

There is some ambiguity whether "she" and "my
mother's sister" are one person (in which case
the "she" seems unusual, and unnecessary, but not incorrect) or two.

Joel

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>>>
>>>  Fifty-ish, black female speaker from Chicago:
>>>
>>>  "My niece called me up and aksed for me to _co-sign for her a car_."
>>>
>>>  "I have me a good, government job. I couldn't afford to get up one
>>>  morning, go out, and find my car _stapled to the sidewalk_ [i.e.,
>>>  booted]."
>>>
>>>  Twenty-ish, black female speaker from Chicago:
>>>
>>>  "She my mother sister and I used to call her 'Auntie [Ejn.ti < [An.ti]
>>>  Rainey,' (sounded like "ANE teeRAINY") but now, since she suing me, I
>>>  just call her 'Lorraine'."

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