transitive "be done" (again?)

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 7:43 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>
> On Aug 20, 2012, at 11:00 AM, Larry Horn wrote:
>
> > 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:
> >
> > .....
> > 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
> > 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.
> >
>
> from my files:
>
> “I’m done my homework” ‘I’m done with my homework”, on ADS-L Oct.-Dec.
> 2004, attested in (at least) Middle Atlantic states and in western Canada
>
> search on: "I'm done my homework"

See also the discussion on Languagehat of "I'm done work":

http://www.languagehat.com/archives/004514.php

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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