Another monosyllabic base form for PSP

Tue May 8 00:22:02 UTC 2012

On May 7, 2012, at 6:10 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> I don't understand why context is necessary.  The sentence is ""You
> didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."  To me "didn't"
> is once in the past, and thus I take "bat" to be the simple past also
> (like "I sat (down)").   If I read Neal correctly immediately below,
> there was one initial encounter, and at their next meeting she says
> "didn't ... bat".

We met last week at lunch.  You had a platter of greens and grains and I had a burger, and I noticed you looking at me with disapproval.  Now I've invited you to join me for lunch and you turn me down.  I say "You didn't accept my invitation because I eat meat".  I could also say "You didn't accept my invitation because I ate meat", but the meaning would be different.  I'm assuming that you concluded from my eating meat once that I'd be likely to do so again (as with the eye-batting scenario).  Based on my assumption that you would be (ceteris paribus) observing the usual morphological practices, the "habit" inference would be more likely than the "marked past tense" inference.

LH

>
> I would say "didn't ... batted", however.  Something like Bogart and
> Bacall in "To have and have not" ("You whistled?")
>
> If the example had been ""You don't come here because I bat my
> eyelashes at you", that is continuing action, and "bat" is the
> present tense.  The same for "You aren't coming here because I bat my
> eyelashes at you."
>
> Joel
>
> At 5/7/2012 12:38 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:
>> 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>
>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 12:13 PM
>> Subject: Re: Another monosyllabic base form for PSP
>>
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
>>> header -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: Another monosyllabic base form for PSP
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> 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
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Amy West" <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>>>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 9:03 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: Another monosyllabic base form for PSP
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
>>>>> header -----------------------
>>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>>>>> Subject:      Re: Another monosyllabic base form for PSP
>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> On 5/7/12 12:04 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>>>>>> Date:    Sun, 6 May 2012 23:44:23 -0400
>>>>>> From:    Neal Whitman<nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
>>>>>> 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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>
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