[Ads-l] to (have) got this

[Jonathan Lighter]

As I hear it, "I got this!" often means, "Let *me* do it!"

JL

On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 11:24 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have this.
> I don't have this.
>
> I got this.
> I don't got this.
>
> DanG
>
> On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 10:44 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > > On Jan 24, 2018, at 10:17 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Isn’t that normal negation for “(have) got”?
> > >
> > > I gotta go -> I don’t gotta go
> > >
> > > Nevertheless, when comparing “I got this” and “I have this”, the former
> > seems to have idiomatic status separate from the latter.
> > >
> > > BB
> >
> > I could imagine saying (present tense) “I got this”, but the negative
> > counterpart for me could only be “I haven’t got this”, not “I don’t got
> > this”; it’s still basically “I’ve got” with the ‘ve suppressed when the
> > “got” immediately follows.  (Of course if “got” is past tense in “I got
> > it", the negation would be “I didn’t get it”, but that’s a different
> > verb/use.)
> >
> > LH
> > >
> > >> On 24 Jan 2018, at 18:58, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Interesting behavior under negation.  From last night’s season
> premiere
> > of “The Detour”, Nate (Jason Jones) and his wife Robin (Natalie Zea) and
> > their kids are on the run and assuming new identities in a small town in
> > Alaska. Nate, who is pretending to be a roller coaster expert (don’t
> ask),
> > is called on to figure out which is the correct wire to splice out of a
> > messy box filled with different colored wires to stop an out of control
> > Ferris wheel with kids on board.
> > >>
> > >> Local guy with red beard and ponytail, opening control box to reveal
> > dozens of multicolored interlacing wires: “Oh…That is a big old mess of
> > crap in there, isn’t it?"
> > >> Nate: "Oh shit, it could be any of them.”
> > >> Red beard, handing Jones wire-cutters: “Good luck, man."
> > >> Robin: “No, you got this.”
> > >> Nate: “I don’t got this.”
> > >>
> > >> LH
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>> On Jan 24, 2018, at 8:58 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> Urban Dictionary entry for "I got this" from 2006:
> > >>>
> > >>> ----
> > >>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=I%20got%20this
> > >>> I got this
> > >>> An expression that's short for:
> > >>> 1. I got this covered.
> > >>> 2. I got this handled.
> > >>> 3. I got this under control.
> > >>> WORKER: I can't talk to that guy. He feels I'm all game.
> > >>> TEAM LEADER: Don't worry. I got this.
> > >>> ----
> > >>>
> > >>> The only dictionary I see that treats the expression explicitly is
> the
> > >>> Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, but only with "you" as the
> > subject:
> > >>>
> > >>> ----
> > >>> https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/you-
> > you-ve-got-this
> > >>> _you/you've got this_
> > >>> mainly US informal
> > >>> used to tell someone that you believe they can or will succeed in
> > dealing
> > >>> with something:
> > >>> "I know you can lose that weight! You got this!"
> > >>> ----
> > >>>
> > >>> --bgz
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> On Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 7:38 AM, Jonathan Lighter <
> > wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > >>> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> I began noticing this about ten years ago. FWIW.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> JL
> > >>>>
> > >>>> On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 10:47 PM, Barretts Mail <
> > mail.barretts at gmail.com>
> > >>>> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> A quick glance at Wiktionary, the English Oxford Living Languages
> > and the
> > >>>>> HDAS doesn’t yield this expression. It means “will handle this
> > >>>>> challenge/problem right now."
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> With the third person plural and the ass pronouns, I think the ’s
> of
> > >>>>> “have” is obligatory, though I’m probably wrong:
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> s/he’s got this
> > >>>>> my ass/your ass, etc. ’s got this
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> With the other persons, I think “have” is skipped:
> > >>>>> I/you/we/you guys/they got this
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> The OLL does have, under “get”:
> > >>>>> Succeed in attaining, achieving, or experiencing; obtain.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> ‘I need all the sleep I can get’
> > >>>>> ‘he got a teaching job in California’
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Both Wiktionary and OLL (the latter cited here) have:
> > >>>>> Respond to a ring of (a telephone or doorbell)
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>
> > >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> > >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >>
> > >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> > >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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