"I'm going to have _her_ a party."

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Sep 21 16:29:25 UTC 2011


On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 11:04 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> Interesting

Precisely. I've been tripping over that line since the very first time
that I heard the song. "Have _her_ a party?" It's another
gear-grinder. Was he, somehow, forced into expressing the concept that
way?

"I'm going to have a party for her."

All right. So, that won't fit into the song's rhythmic structure. But,
what's wong with, e.g.

"_I'm / We('re)_ going to _ha-ave_ a party"?

In context, that would easily convey the same thought. Well, maybe
not. "have a party _with_" isn't "have a party _for_."

Anyway, as Don & Dewy - absolutely NOT Dale & Grace!!! - put it,

I'm leaving it all up to you
You decide what you want to do

--
-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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