Re: "Smack [someone] upside the head"

Just happened upon a passage in a book where "she belted him up the side of his
head with a purse that felt like it had a brick in it." :-)

----- Original Message -----
From: Krista Casada <kcasada@...>
Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 12:01 pm
Subject: Re: "Smack [someone] upside the head"
To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU

> Hmm, because it's like "beside," maybe? The verb can be "thunk" or
> "thwack", if you need a little variety. And upside can be replaced
> by over, at least around here.
> :-)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sai Emrys <sai@...>
> Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 11:57 am
> Subject: "Smack [someone] upside the head"
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>
> > Whence comes this unusual grammar?
> >
> > It seems to tolerate more-or-less any other term for 'head' (eg I
> > recently saw it w/ 'noodle')... but not very much (any?) leeway
> in the
> > verb, anatomy, or direction.
> >
> > But generally, [verb] [locative] [def. article] requires a locative
> > phrase (e.g. "on top of"); why is it dropped here?
> >
> > - Sai
> >
>