Bring vs. Take

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:48 PM -0200 2/11/11, David A. Daniel wrote:
>This is typical of New York and extended environs. Ex: other day, during an
>episode of TAAHM, my daughter said "I wonder where Chuck Lorre is from". I
>told her, "Gotta be New York because he always has Charlie and the others
>saying bring instead of take." Sure enough, he's from Long Guyland. Anyway,
>the anecdotals are legion and I've never seen it fail. Family and friends in
>places like Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and L.A. don't get it wrong (I
>listen for this sort of thing), even those who tend to make other mistakes
>of the "should of went" sort. Hint to George: If you can't say the word
>"here" in the sentence, as in "bring it here" you should probably be using
>"take". For example, Charlie, at home, and being from California, would
>never say to Allan, "I have to bring my Mercedes to the shop." (But that is
>exactly what a New Yorker would say.) However, the mechanic on the phone at
>the shop would say, "You have to bring your Mercedes [here] to the shop,"
>which we know is correct because "here" fits into the sentence.
>DAD

How about us eclectic folks who can say "I gotta bring this here
Chevy to the shop"?  (If you have a Mercedes, you can't use "here";
register clash.)

LH

>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>George Thompson
>Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 3:11 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Bring vs. Take
>
>
>
>Wilson:
>"(One my wife's pet peeves is the loss of the distinction between
>_bring_ and _take_.)"
>
>Is this a Pennsylvania thing?
>One of the many things my defunct mother-in-law found objectionable in me
>was my inability to use" bring" and "take" properly.  Many a time did she
>explain to me that one would always bring something to a place and then take
>it back -- unless one took something to a place and then brought it back --
>it was one or the other -- I could never keep it straight -- so I would
>alternate between the two, figuring that that would make her happy half of
>the time.
>Not how she worked, however -- I succeeded in making her unhappy half of the
>time.
>
>She was from western Pennsylvania, a prescriptivist high-school English
>teacher.
>
>Fondly remembered, of course.
>
>GAT
>
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
>Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
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>
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