Re: YAEDT? Syntax in dialects of English (was: Of accents & dialects (was: Azurian phonology)

On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 7:08 PM, Larry Sulky <larrysulky@...> wrote:
> I can offer a little example of a syntactic difference. In Canadian English,
> "to be done" and "to be finished" do not require (and seldom use) the
> preposition "with" to mark what is done or finished. So you will hear "I'm
> done my dinner" or "Are you finished your homework?". In the USA, these
> would be improper constructions.
Lots of little differences like that, especially across the Pond.  One
that springs to mind is that Americans eliding a verb phrase with an
auxiliary just leave the main verb off ("Are you going to go?"  "I
should.") where Brits replace the main verb with a generic instead ("I
should do.").



Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

Reply