[Ads-l] RES: On the Waterfront: dialect clash

[David Daniel]

What I find most interesting here is that you said you looked at the movie
on YouTube. I would have said I watched it on YouTube. I do remember as a
kid some folks would say they were looking at television - whereas I was
watching it - but I always thought it was just a few folks being odd. Now I
find there is a Lion of Language who says it too. Interesting!
DAD

Enviada em: quinta-feira, 21 de setembro de 2017 00:53
Para: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Assunto: On the Waterfront: dialect clash

Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      On the Waterfront: dialect clash
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Surprising as it may seem, I had never seen this famous movie until last
weekend, when I looked at it on YouTube. But, as does everyone else, I know

=E2=80=9CI could have been a contender. I could have been somebody, instead=
of what I am, which is nobody=E2=80=9D

and I was waiting to hear it =E2=80=9Cin the flesh,=E2=80=9D as it were.

And, when I did, I was shocked, shocked! For some reason, I=E2=80=99d alway=
s assumed that the second sentence would be spoken as,

A) =E2=80=9CI coulda BEEN somebody, instedda what I am, which is NObody.=E2=
=80=9D

But I was taken off guard, because what I heard was,

B) =E2=80=9CI coulda been SOMEbody, instedda what I am, which is NObody.=E2=
=80=9D

The contrast between _SOMEbody_ and _NObody_ is almost Homeric in its
clarity. Yet, somehow, A just feels =E2=80=9Cright" to me.

--=20
-Wilson
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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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org