Bring vs. Take

[Ronald Butters]

I am sure that Larry doesn't really say "this here." Such a speaker is more likely to be from the South and would in fact say, ""I gotta CARRY this here Chevy to the shop"!


On Feb 11, 2011, at 3:14 PM, David A. Daniel wrote:

> 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
>
> Ya got me there, pard. Thanks for taking it to my attention.
> DAD
>
>
>
>
>> -----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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>
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