creative use of "little"?

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sun Feb 19 03:11:01 UTC 2012


On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 1:11 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> _little_ panel

This _little_ strikes me as being pretty much the same as the common
BE _little_. An example thereof can be heard in the song, "Fuck
You/Forget You," by Ce-Lo Green, where he refers to his ex's new man
as "your _little_ boyfriend." It expresses only the *speaker's*
negative feelings toward the spoken-of, without reference to any
aspect of the reality of that entity.

Terry O'Neill is pissed off at Darrel Issa. Ce-Lo is pissed off at his
ex-girlfriend. They have expressed their respective feelings. It's not
necessary for anyone else to feel that way, only that it should be
clear to others *why* the speaker feels that way. IMO, it's perfectly
clear, in both cases.

Of course, that's only the way that the colored see this kind of use
of _little.". So,

Youneverknow.

--
-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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list