[Ads-l] On the Waterfront: dialect clash

[paul johnson]

I find myself watching TV and looking at television


On 9/21/2017 8:19 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Yeah! "Looking at television"!
>
> *There's* a blast from the past! (I.e., 1950s in my x-perience).
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 8:26 AM, David Daniel <dad at coarsecourses.com> wrote:
>
>> 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
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------------
>> ---
>>
>> 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
>> -----
>> 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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>> ---
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>> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>

-- 
"There You Go Again Trying to Use Reason on the Planet That Produced the 
Duck-Billed Platypus"

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