LL-L "Grammar" 2011.05.01 (05) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 01 May 2011 - Volume 05
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From: Paul Anisman <panisman at gmail.com>

Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2011.04.29 (03) [EN]


Hi, all -  The comments of Sandy and others, related to searching for
the use of -s in other than 3rd person singular present tense verbs,
brings to mind a page out of my youth.  I don't think we've discussed
the use of -s with the first person singular of the present tense of
"to say", in NY City English.  When I was growing up in Brooklyn ('40s
and '50s) it was very popular, in working class speech, to narrate an
incident that occurred in the past with "so I sez....and then she
sez....and then I sez"....or, to emphasize a point when it appears
your interlocutor hasn't really heard you or understood you.  For
example: "Did you say this cost 5 dollars?" might well elicit an
impatient response such as "SIX DOLLARS, I sez".   This phenomenon
occurred exclusively in the first person singular....I never heard it
used with "you", "we" or "they".  It was also exclusively relegated to
the verb "to say".

Another observation re the use of the present tense for past reference
is it's employment by (in particular) History teachers....both
secondary and university level.  Apparently, they feel that it lends
more realism, and creates more of a "you are there" feeling among the
students....particularly when in a lecture mode.  I have noticed
teachers I know, even in an informal conversation with colleagues,
suddenly switching into the historical present,  when discussing some
aspect ot history.  It's as if they've suddenly switched into their
teacher mode.

Just a couple of observations.

--Paul Anisman
Maryland, U.S.

On 4/29/11, Lowlands-L List <lowlands.list at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: Sandy Fleming <fleemin at live.co.uk>
>
> Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2011.04.29 (02) [EN]
>
>> From: Pat Barrett <pbarrett at cox.net>
>> Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2011.04.28 (06) [EN]
>
>> The use of -s in other than 3rd person singular present tense verbs is a
> characteristic of certain English dialects. All persons have -s.
>
> Memory isn't serving me too well on this but I think it's in Berkshire or
> thereabouts that it's all -s. There's somewhere else (Norwich?) where
there
> are no present tense endings.
>
> So if we want a simple standard for English...  :)
>
> I'm finding it hard to search for this sort of thing. Wikipedia has pages
> about dialects but trying to follow links on them seems to lead to general
> geographic pages about the regions.
>
> Sandy Fleming
> http://scotstext.org/

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