Is this you?

[Charles C Doyle]

My wife (who grew up in Chicago in the 1950s and '60s) uses that formulation.  I'd always assumed it's an idiosyncrasy!  I have often replied, sarcastically, "No, I'm over here."

--Charlie


On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 7:58 AM, Michael Newman
>
> Matt,
>
> Good point, and it's why you're such a good linguist!   I was looking
> briefly at an article by Gregory Ward in Language on displaced reference,
> which this falls under.
>
>  In my view, it's "Is this your stuff" "or "this is my stuff."
>
>
> It's not "this is where my car is parked"
>
> So it's essentially, it's identify the person associated with the thing
> rather than the location of a thing associated with a person.
>
>
> Michael Newman

> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson"
> > Subject:      Re: Is this you?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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

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