[Ads-l] "shut up talking"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED  shows no exx. of "Shut up!" taking a direct object.

I would have said "Shut up about blah blah" without the need to specify
"talking."

"Shut up talking" sounds very odd to me.

(Earliest "Shut up!": 1840).

JL

On Wed, Oct 21, 2015 at 8:19 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "shut up talking"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Normal for me to say, or at least to shout in anger or frustration.
>
> "Shut up" doesn't easily take an object. "Stop talking" has an immediacy
> that doesn't convey the desire that the topic is not to be brought up
> again.
> On Oct 20, 2015 9:29 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:      Re: "shut up talking"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 6:53 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Fwiw, I've heard "shut up talking..." before.
> >
> >
> > So have I. What should a person say, instead? "Don't talk about..."?
> "Stop
> > talking about..."? "Peace. Be still about... Does "Shut up talking
> > about..." really strike people as an odd construction, even odder than
> > "splitting" an infinitive with "not"?
> >
> >
> > --
> > -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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> >
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