Deictic 'go'
Benjamin Torbert
btorbert at GMAIL.COM
Wed Nov 6 04:31:29 UTC 2013
Little help, y'all:
I have [at least] two grad students who teach in majority (read, 100%) AfAm
classrooms in StL, and they bring up things about AA(V)E, and they're
seldom able to stump me, but this time, I wasn't able to give a complete
answer. They were asking me about what is apparently known as deictic *go*.
1) There go your pencil.
2) Here go your permission slip.
These more or less paraphrase in mainstream American English (ugh, the
label, I know) with a form of *be, *namely *is, *probably contracted most
likely.
Is there any scholarly work on this feature, beyond a basic description of
the feature? I was vaguely aware of it, but I don't remember anyone
talking about it in six years of gradskool, when we were talking about AAE
more or less nonstop. The only thing I could find was a 1975 article
(Clark/Garnica), and it seems to address different issues.
Thanks,
BT
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