Is this you?

[Joel S. Berson]

Does this locution appear only/mainly when the "this" is seen as
characterizing or defining the person, as a car might define a person
as staid or racy?  "That hairdo/dress/... is me."

Joel

At 1/28/2014 08:32 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>Depends on what "this" is, I'd think.  For cars, it's pretty
>widespread, i.e. "Is this/that you?" meaning 'Is this/that your
>car?'  With a socket wrench and a Phillips head screwdriver at the
>hardware store, I'm not so sure.
>
>LH
>
>On Jan 28, 2014, at 8:14 PM, Michael Newman wrote:
>
> > Is the expression "this is me" meaning "this is mine" (etc. for
> you, etc)  limited to NYC and environs?
> >
> > I've been hearing it for a while, and my husband asked me if it's
> an NYC thing. I just heard it in the following exchange, and
> thought I'd better ask before putting it in my NYC English book,
> which I'm sending off again as soon as I get this issue settled yea yea.
> >
> > Setting Hardware store with a bunch of products on the counter.
> >
> > Store guy to me: "Is this you?"
> > Me: Nah
> > Other customer: "This is me."
> > Store guy: "OK"
> >
> >
> >
> > Michael Newman
> > Professor of Linguistics
> > Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders
> > Queens College/CUNY
> >
> > mnewman at qc.cuny.edu
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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