Re: THEORY: more questions

Costentin Cornomorus wrote:
> --- Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...> wrote:
>>Tristan McLeay wrote:
>>>(Of course, in American English, the jarring
>>'write me' is grammatically
>>Indeed, it's very jarring. It usually causes
>>some little boggling of the mind when I read
>>it.
> Is it not a part of your dialect then?
[In answer to Mark too]

No, it's not used in Ireland or Britain AFAIK - certainly I
can only recall ever hearing it from 'Mericans. But it's quite
possible that it's present in, say, Lincolnshire dialect, and
that's how it got to America (like _Fall_ for _Autumn_, not to
mention _Boston_).

 > It's
 > totally transparent to me. As with any verb of
 > that sort (sing, tell, read, etr.)

Ah, but there's the rub: it's not a verb of that sort to me.
The verb 'write' takes a direct object alright, but one which
refers to what's written. Obviously the American verb can do
this too, but the rightpondian version definitely requires a
'to' to introduce the recipient.

OTOH, _sing_, _tell_, _read_ function the same way for me as for you.

My, I've moved up in the world: I used to contribute to the YAEPTs.
Now I'm working on YAEDTs! Excellent....

ObConlang: ... nah... wait till I'm ready :)

--
I just need enough                    Stephen Mulraney
to tide me over                    ataltane@oceanfree.net
until I need more                    http://livejournal.com/~ataltane
    -- Bill Hoest                    http://ataltane.net

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