[Ads-l] "Paul Robinette" of _Law and Order_ speaks:

[Wilson Gray]

> the variant is of such great frequency these days that it's quite likely
it was in the script.

Nonsense. The supposed "great frequency these days" has no relevance to any
use of it - spontaneous or scripted - in the years 1990-1993, when the
"Robinette" character was part of L&O. OTOH:

Duffy's Fire Side Magazine - Issue 2 - Page 37
https://books.google.com/books?id=Si5JAAAAcAAJ
James Duffy, Dublin: December, 1850 - ‎Read
... whether the child was quiet?

"Qui't ma'am?" exclaimed the nurse, after having replied to all the fiscal
interrogatories -- "the darlin' o' the world! _that big of a squall_ you
wouldn't hear outside her lips from one end o' the week to th' other. I
never seen a betther crathur, God bless her!

Youneverknow.

On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 3:02 AM, Benjamin Barrett <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Paul Robinette" of _Law and Order_ speaks:
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > On 27 Jan 2016, at 23:42, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU> =
> wrote:
> >=20
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: "Paul Robinette" of _Law and Order_ speaks:
> > =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
> >=20
> >> On Jan 27, 2016, at 9:59 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> =3D20
> >> Subject:      "Paul Robinette" of _Law and Order_ speaks:
> >> =3D20
> >> "She's not that good _of_ a liar."
> >> =3D20
> >> "Paul" - Richard Brooks, a native of Cleveland - is the original =
> black gu=3D
> > y
> >> of L&O.
> >=20
> > first thing: PR is an actor, reading lines from a script. for all we =
> know, =3D
> > this is what the script writer gave him as a line, and any linguistic =
> inter=3D
> > est it might have has nothing to do with PR's race or the place where =
> he gr=3D
> > ew up.
> >=20
> > it is true that actors sometimes alter the lines they were given to =
> fit the=3D
> > system of their own variety. in this case, i tried to find out what =
> the li=3D
> > ne was in the script, but to no avail. but the variant is of such =
> great fre=3D
> > quency these days that it's quite likely it was in the script.
> >=20
> > second thing: i've posted about this variant dozens of times on ADS-L =
> and p=3D
> > osted about it repeatedly on my blog; an inventory of postings on my =
> blog a=3D
> > bout EDM (with comments) can be found here:
> >=20
> > http://arnoldzwicky.org/linguistics-notes/edm/
> >=20
> > the historically older variant is what i've called -of EDM =
> (Exceptional Deg=3D
> > ree Marking) -- in this case,
> >=20
> >  She's not that good a liar.
> >=20
> > (this is an answer to Benjamin Barrett's question about what the =
> alternativ=3D
> > e is to the variant in Law & Order; Barrett is apparently a speaker of =
> the =3D
> > now-standard variety in the US, with only (or predominantly) +of EDM.)
>
> Thank you for that follow-up. I can drop the =E2=80=9Cof=E2=80=9D and =
> perhaps do so most of the time, but it=E2=80=99s like an anagram when =
> the form is written on the page. BB=
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-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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