transitive "be done" (again?)

[Geoff Nathan]

I heard a talk at CSDL in Vancouver this past May on the topic. The speaker claimed it was exclusively Canadian. I'll see if I can find the link... Geoff Geoffrey S. Nathan Faculty Liaison, C&IT and Professor, Linguistics Program http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/ +1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT) +1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics) ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 2:00:17 PM
> Subject: transitive "be done" (again?)
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: transitive "be done" (again?)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To respond to a student's query, I'm trying to recall a thread from a
> =
> discussion I seem to vaguely remember our having a while back. It =
> concerned transitive "be done", if that's the right label. An example
> =
> is "I'm done my homework", with the meaning essentially that of =
> mainstream "I'm done with my homework". The questions are:
> 1) what is the geographical range of this construction?
> 2) what are the grammatical/semantic constraints on when it occurs?
> 3) what papers have described it (maybe something in _American
> Speech_?)
> 4) what if anything is it called?
> Answering (4) might help answer some of the others. I looked carefully
> =
> (I think) through the DARE entries for "do" and "done" without finding
> =
> it described, although I may have missed it. The student writes:
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> This usage seems to be common in Baltimore, Philadelphia, parts of New
> =
> Jersey and Delaware, and also Quebec. I would be happy to give more =
> specific examples, although I am not aware of scholarly articles on
> the =
> subject. Here is a link to a blogger who discusses it. =
> http://shubhabala.com/archives/1310
> I have noticed it among my friends from these regions and have also
> been =
> documenting its use.
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> Thanks for any help!
> LH=
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