"I'm gonna buy me a dog"

[Suzette Haden Elgin]

September 25, 2004

I hesitate to get into this, given the current climate and the fact that I
can't offer evidence, but I guess I that's cowardly --  so here goes.

"I'm gonna buy me a dog" is native for me ... part of my native Ozark
English dialect. Where I live in rural northwest Arkansas I hear the
construction constantly. I've tried to imagine a context in which I would
say "I'm gonna run me a race," and I've failed; but I can certainly say
"I'm gonna write me a novel." But for me, as a native speaker, the
"me/myself" pairs just are not synonymous. I wouldn't say "I'm gonna buy me
a dog" and "I'm gonna buy myself a dog" interchangeably, and the difference
isn't simply the degree of formality.

As I said, I can't offer evidence. However, my guess is that the "me" is
resumptive and that it's related to the double-pronoun focus phenomenon --
like the "he" in "Tom, he never offers a grammaticality judgment unless he
can offer solid evidence with it."

Suzette Haden Elgin