TV dialogue: "I paid for this and..."

[Dan Goncharoff]

Seems to me there is a simple explanation for take-avoidance -- children
learn that  'taking' is bad because 'taking from' is often bad. 'Bringing'
is always good. Ergo, one never takes, and always brings.

DanG


On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 8:27 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      TV dialogue: "I paid for this and..."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "I'm bringing it!"
>
> Yet, in the scene, given that the object is already present in and a part
> of that scene, the speaker is clearly *taking* it.
>
> Well, why not get rid of every unnecessary distinction in the language?
> Does it actually *matter* whether a person uses "bring" or "take," in the
> real world, any more than it matters whether a person is an "actor" or an
> "actress," when either can simply be referred to as an "actress"?
>
> --
> -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
>
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