Grammar

[Robert Lawless]

Richard. You might not be so generous in your interpretation if you had 
heard the extremely threatening tone of the father's voice and seen the 
fear in the boy's face. I believe the underlying message was, "You've 
ruined my day, and I'm going to beat the shit out of you when we get home." 
Robert.

At 11:05 AM 6/14/2006, Richard J Senghas wrote:
>At 10:45 AM -0500 6/14/06, Robert Lawless wrote:
>>At an amusement park that other day, I overheard a father berating his 
>>son with these phrases repeated many times, "All you've done is complain. 
>>Ain't nothing too good for you. I'm taking you home." I assume he meant 
>>"ain't nothing good enough for you," unless this is another of those 
>>reversed meaning phrases, such as "I could care less." Any comments? Robert.
>
>I've heard this type of exchange before, too.  I've unpacked it as meaning 
>something along the lines of:
>
>"You think you are so special that you expect only and all the very 
>best.   Anything less isn't good enough for you.  So you complain about 
>everything because it could be better; thus, "nothing is too good for you" 
>[i.e. above your station in life].  Therefore, you need to be taken down a 
>peg, so I'm taking you home.  You should be happy for what you get."
>
>[Unsolicited social commentary:  It is heartening to see a parent realize 
>that giving less to such a child may be a more effective way to foster 
>appreciation than continued escalation of gifts in the hope of finally 
>pleasing a child.  I sure hope the father's actions ended up being 
>consistent with the rhetoric, otherwise it seems to descend into shaming, 
>however unintentional, IMHO.]
>
>-RJS
>--
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>Richard J. Senghas, Assoc. Professor     | Sonoma State University
>Anthropology/Linguistics                 | 1801 East Cotati Avenue
>Coordinator, Linguistics Program         | Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
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