Another monosyllabic base form for PSP

[David A. Daniel]

Odd, what worries me about the whole thing is that her name is Romanov and
not Romanova, but maybe there's some comic book history here that I'm not
aware of (I had never heard of her before seeing the movie). FWIW (very
little) I thought the bat context was fine, in the sense of "just batting my
eyes would not have brought you here."
DAD

Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
Subject:      Re: Another monosyllabic base form for PSP
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The earlier context: She had been sent to bring in "the Big Guy" (i.e. the
Hulk) to be part of the world-saving Avengers team. She and Banner have a
tense conversation about why he should agree to do this, whether attempted
confinement in cages or other rights violations would occur. He ultimately
agrees. This seemed to be their first encounter, so there would have been no
chances for eyelash-batting before this to influence his decision.

Later, when the team is assembled, this line occurs, and the intended
meaning is that his coming was not a result of her batting her eyelashes at
him -- whether she did or not being incidental, just that she was referring
to their initial conversation and his decision to come.

Neal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
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>
> Not to be picky, but that's still consistent with it being present tense,
> where the previous occurring of eyelash-batting serves as evidence for the
> habit, disposition, or whatever.  (cf. Pitcher to batter: I'm walking you
> because you bat .500 against me.)   If there had been a time adverbial
> (".last time/week", "before that fight", whatever), it would be
> undeniable.  Actually, from the context, I'm not even sure whether Romanov
> is citing her eyelashing-batting as the reason for Banner not coming, or
> as a non-reason for his coming, much less whether her batting was a prior
> event or an ongoing practice.
>
> LH
>
> On May 7, 2012, at 10:46 AM, Neal Whitman wrote:
>
>> Yes, it was definitely referring to a previous incident in the movie, not
>> a
>> habitual action.
>>
>> NW
>>-
>> From: "Amy West" <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
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>>>> Subject: Another monosyllabic base form for PSP
>>>>
>>>> The latest (to me) example of a monosyllabic verb with a lax vowel
>>>> nucleus
>>>> and dental stop coda comes from the movie_The Avengers_, in which
>>>> Natasha
>>>> Romanov says to Bruce Banner:
>>>>
>>>> "You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."
>>> Very interesting. . .
>>>
>>> Dumb question: does the context clearly indicate that the past tense is
>>> intended? It sounds fine to me as a present indicating habitual/repeated
>>> action. Perhaps I've just got a tin ear.
>>>
>>> Thanks for the blog pointers: I'll go take a look when avoiding grading.
>>>
>>> ---Amy MacEvilly
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------

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