[Ads-l] to (have) got this

[Laurence Horn]

And then there’s the “I got it!” call by a fielder, calling off other fielders.

> On Jan 25, 2018, at 1:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> 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)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
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>>> 
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>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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