Quotes from work

[BlackBlade]

It's bugs me, and I imagine that won't change.

[Tante Shvester]

Dunno.  I used to be the same way, but I got soft and mellow, like a stale malted milk ball, in my old age.

[Jonathon]

It's bugs me, and I imagine that won't change.

It bugs me too, though I just silently let it pass by. (Except for one of my former coworkers, because sometimes it's fun to razz editors about their nonstandard usage.)

I was just trying to point out that "when someone says ____, they're really saying ____" is just one piece of the puzzle.

[BlackBlade]

Dunno.  I used to be the same way, but I got soft and mellow, like a stale malted milk ball, in my old age.

I can't hardly parse your comparison.

[Noemon]

When I was in grade school the teacher asked a classmate of mine if she had done something, and the kid responded by saying "I has done did it". It kind of blew my mind at the time, because it seemed so much more involved than just "I've done it" would have been. Is there a dialect in which you'll find a construction like that, or was she just spewing words randomly?

[Farmgirl]

It blows my mind that you can remember a random conversation from grade school....

[Tante Shvester]

If Jake's grade school (and memory) is at all like mine, snippets of random conversations and the odd absurdity are all he remembers from grade school.

[Noemon]

It blows my mind that you can remember a random conversation from grade school....

That particular remark really blew my mind.

Actually, though, my recall of my childhood used to be incredibly detailed. In recent years chunks of it have slipped away, though, which is sad. Makes me think I should start writing down what I can still recall of it.

[Jonathon]

When I was in grade school the teacher asked a classmate of mine if she had done something, and the kid responded by saying "I has done did it". It kind of blew my mind at the time, because it seemed so much more involved than just "I've done it" would have been. Is there a dialect in which you'll find a construction like that, or was she just spewing words randomly?

I honestly don't know. There are probably a lot of dialects in which you might find something like "I done it" or "I done did it", but I don't know about that particular combination. How old were you at the time? If you were pretty young, it could just be because kids haven't fully mastered grammar yet.

[Noemon]

I believe we were in 2nd grade. It might have been 3rd, though.

[pooka]

Someone probably had recently corrected her so she was trying to incorporate that.  

I remember the day they (the teacher and co-teacher) put a kid in the middle of a circle of all the children and tried to get him to pronounce "three" and not "free" and he wound up crying.  It's stuff like that makes me really not like prescriptivists.  If the person has not got the ear for what you're pointing out to them, it's just flat mean.  And it's actually the prescriptivist who is ignorant of what is really going on.

[Marianne Dashwood]

Or the child had the ear for it but hadn't developed the motor ability to produce the sound. That's the worst thing. A lot of children can perceive differences long before they can produce them.

[Jonathon]

They cannot expect to have so many horses, cattle, and wagons to haul themselves and luggage over the mountains; and this will open up the way most effectually for many of the Saints to enjoy that anticipates, and, with many, long-desired privilege of walking over the plains.

I stared at this ungrammatical nightmare for at least five minutes before I finally realized that "anticipates" should be "anticipated".

[BlackBlade]

I only have the flimsiest of grasps as to what they were trying to say.

[Jonathon]

It was in the context of how Saints immigrating to the US shouldn't bring tons of crap with them, because it would cost too much and slow them down. The author was saying that many people had anticipated and had long desired to come across the plains, and packing lighter would enable them to do so.

[Marianne Dashwood]

Even with "anticipated" I still can't figure it out. Was it written by a Chinese person?

[Jonathon]

Doubtful. But it's from 1852, so it sounds a little odd.

How about this: "This will open up the way most effectually for many of the Saints to enjoy that privilege of walking over the plains."

The privilege of walking over the plains was anticipated.

For many, the privilege of walking over the plains was also long desired.

[BlackBlade]

I could barely stand driving over the plains. These people were nuts, crazy Mormon pioneer nuts.

[pooka]

Well, many of them had been moved off from place to place and they decided rather than keeping up with the 150 mile hops they'd just go a good long ways and be done with.

[BlackBlade]

Well, many of them had been moved off from place to place and they decided rather than keeping up with the 150 mile hops they'd just go a good long ways and be done with.

So if you were driven from home to home you'd be looking forward to a big long trek across the plains where you could setup home again?

[Jonathon]

This is talking about emigrants from the British Isles. They hadn't been driven from place to place.

[Tante Shvester]

This is talking about emigrants from the British Isles. They hadn't been driven from place to place.

That's why they had to walk.

[pooka]

Well, many of them had been moved off from place to place and they decided rather than keeping up with the 150 mile hops they'd just go a good long ways and be done with.

So if you were driven from home to home you'd be looking forward to a big long trek across the plains where you could setup home again?

I hope never to find out.  You don't think that had anything to do with it?  (Talking here about my read of the original quote and not Jonathon's explanation that it was British immigrants)

[rivka]

Title of email sent to listserv:

Communication with students on subsidized elimination

Um, I don't think you meant what you just said . . .

[Brinestone]

That would be a new government low.