[Ads-l] =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=9CWhat_am_I_wanting_to_illustrate=3F=E2=80=9D_?=(Barry Neil Kaufman in "To Love Is to Be Happy With")

[Barretts Mail]

There is a thread that starts at http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2008-February/078660.html <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2008-February/078660.html> titled “I am still believing”.

See also http://www.americandialect.org/americandialectarchives/dec93.txt <http://www.americandialect.org/americandialectarchives/dec93.txt>.

I found those using the search page at https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=015166654881017481565:tinnmx85pdy <https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=015166654881017481565:tinnmx85pdy>. I thought there was a thread that discussed McDonald’s “I’m loving it” but it didn’t come up.

Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA

> On 24 Aug 2019, at 08:08, Federico Escobar <federicoescobarcordoba at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Barry Neil Kaufman is the author of several books and of Son-Rise and
> Option Process fame. One of his first books is "To Love Is to Be Happy
> With" (Fawcett, 1977). The book's "About the author" page says he was "born
> and raised in New York City."
> 
> This book deploys a construction that gives me pause each time. It's a
> combination of a be verb and a verb with an -ing ending that I would have
> phrased differently. I have read other, later books by the author and I
> didn't notice this. It's likely copy editors expunged it (or the author
> dropped it).
> 
> Here are a few examples from the first hundred pages of the book:
> — “Some of us might also be believing that if we didn’t get upset, we would
> somehow be callous and ‘inhuman’” (p. 35).
> — “others are also doing the best they can, the best they know how, based
> on their current beliefs… they’re wanting to be happier, wanting to be more
> loving” (p. 38).
> — “you’re saying he’s not knowing what is best” (p. 54).
> — “What are you wanting?” (p. 54).
> — “What am I wanting to illustrate?” (p. 59).
> — “A parent often makes judgments about what’s best for the child because
> the parent is believing that the child would not choose what’s best for
> himself” (p. 67).
> — “isn’t that what I was wanting for him in the first place?” (p. 71).
> — “And when I am wanting to do that, the process is beautiful… not painful”
> (p. 100).


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