Re: It's vs. it is

> From: bjm10@CORNELL.EDU
>
> On Sun, 15 Apr 2001, Shreyas Sampat wrote:
>
> > Someone brought up the fact that it's okay to say "It's a
> frog", but not =
> > okay to say things of the nature of *"I don't know where it's".  I =
>
> That's because "I don't know where 'tis." is the construction in this
> case (albeit a somewhat archaic one).
>
> This makes more sense if you realize that English uses the one word as
> two different words.  One is a verb, the other is a copula.
>
> Irish distinguishes the two.
I wonder if this isn't more a matter of stress.  "It's a frog." stresses
"It", while "I don't know where it is" stresses "is".  The contraction of
the unstressed "is" is acceptable in the former but the contraction of the
stressed "is" is not acceptable in the later.

BTW, "I don't know where 'tis." is not a valid utterance in my idiolect.

David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
www.graywizard.net

Wisdom begins in wonder.