Re: Grammar - Can

I think the first few sentences in McGuffey's and similar readers need to be
treated as a special condensed dialect used in the initial teaching of
literacy.

"See the dog run" (or the even more condensed "See Spot Run") is a special
dialectal version of "Look at [the picture of] the dog [running]".

In more normal dialects, "See X run" would be very unusual. However, "Look at
X run!" may be used idiomatically, while watching X run, to draw attention to
either unusual speed or mannerisms in X's running. "Look at X go!", oddly
enough, is more specifically concerned with speed and less likely to indicate
other mannerisms of locomotion.

"See Spot. See Spot run. Run, Spot, Run!"
Someone is doing a reprint of "Fun with Dick and Jane".  (Which may be still
in copyright.) I should order it. That's the series that was used in my
school, though after the first few we sometimes switched over to a different
set of primers with a different cast and a slightly different vocabulary. I
suspect they were produced by a competing publisher. I remember that one of
the first words whose spelling I found surprising was, appropriately,
"surprise". I began pronouncing the first 'r' after the learning the
spelling.

--
Elyse Grasso

The World of Cherani Station
www.data-raptors.com/cherani/index.html
Cherani Tradespeech
www.data-raptors.com/cherani/tradespeech.html