[Ads-l] to (have) got this

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jan 25, 2018, at 1:45 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
>> On 25 Jan 2018, at 07:44, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Jan 24, 2018, at 10:17 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM <mailto: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
> 
> 
> How about the negative form of “I got your back”? 
> 
> BB

“It’s not the case that I got your back”.

LH, who would in the real world probably opt for something like “Sorry—as it turns out, I haven’t got your back.”  The alternative favored by others, “I don’t got your back”, is simply not part of my idiolect.    
> 
>>> 
>>>> 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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