Case syncretism

[Georgia]

Hi, Tibor--

You're sure this is American English? "Mam" is not used in the US for
"mother"--I only know it from Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes", so it sounds
like Irish English to me.  As for the rest of the construction, I swear I
have never heard it. Can you ask the folks you heard it from?
I'm interested in learning more about it.

Georgia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tibor Kiss" <tibor at linguistics.ruhr-uni-bochum.de>
To: "HPSG" <hpsg-l at lists.Stanford.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 4:05 AM
Subject: Case syncretism


> Hi,
>
> back home in Europe, the following problem amuses me:
>
> There is a construction in (American) English, which I would call 'X
> told Y told'-construction. (Perhaps it already has a different name, but
> who cares ...)
>
> An example is:
>
> (1) How did you know? Your mam told my aunt told me.
>
> My questions are a) does this construction work with prep datives as
> well, as in (2), and b) is case syncretism required here, i.e. is (3)
> grammatical or not?
>
> (2) Well, how did you get it? Your aunt gave it to my aunt gave it to
> me.
>
> (3) How did he come to know? Your ma told me told him.
>
> I suspect (3) to be out.
>
> Thanks,
>
> T.
>
> =============================================================
> Prof. Dr. Tibor Kiss -- Sprachwissenschaftliches Institut
> Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780 Bochum
> +49-234-3225114 // +49-177-7468265 // +49-234-3214137 (fax)
> What is present now will later be past.
>
>
>