28 December 2007

A bit of language log

I have the annoying tendency to pick up on strange things I say or hear, then make a note on it and try to figure out what's actually going on, or what's actually going wrong. I'm talking constructions here, not necessarily the content of the examples. The examples are taken from actual conversation, which does give a little insight in my life – which after all is what a blog is for...

One
From a discussion with M., when she was talking about the difficulties keeping food warm that she was going to make at a friend's house. I meant A, but I said B.

A. Put them in whatever the woman's name is's bed.
B. Put them in whatever the woman's name's bed is.
I think this is just a production error, caused by a slightly too heavy NP (CP?) whatever the woman's name is. Maybe there is a limit to the size of the NP that can take a possessive 's; this NP was too big and things went wrong.

Two
From radio football commentary.
...maar daarna is NEC beter, gedurfder, meer risico gaan nemend gaan voetballen
Possibly another production error, pre-empting the gaan from the main clause VP.

Three
From a game of Trivial Pursuit.
Q. Wat doet men als men een vallende ster ziet?

A1. Een wens.
A2. Een wens doen.
Possibly a case of do support, but more likely a case of a mix up between lexical doen and dummy verb doen.

Four
From a rant by Hans Lebbis on television yesterday.
Dokter Phil moet dood.
This reminded me of the Scots The dishes need done, but it's not X needs V'ed, but X needs A, meaning X needs ?(to be) made A.

Now just to figure out what's actually going on. But I'm too lazy for that, and have other things to do.

2 comments:

Jen in Edinburgh said...

I keep catching things and meaning to tell you them, but I forget :)

Jen in Edinburgh said...

Here's one - from the front page of one of today's papers:

'Children in custody molested 3000 times a year'

Poor things!