Re: USAGE: NATLANG: I've Gots An English Question

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steg Belsky" <draqonfayir@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2003 5:09 PM
Subject: NATLANG: I've Gots An English Question


> As was repeated many times in various linguistics classes i took in
> college, one of the salient characteristics of African American
> Vernacular English, a.k.a. Ebonics, is the lack of final |-s| on (if i
> remember exactly) possessives, 3rd person singular present verbs, and
> plurals.
>
> So then what dialect of English *adds* final |-s|s where Standard
> American says they don't belong?
>
> The song "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" by Jason Mraz that's been on the
> radio recently includes the line:
>
> "if you've gots the poison, I've gots the remedy"
>
> At another point in the song he seems to say "I says" as another use of
> final |-s| on a non-3rdperson present verb.
"I says"(In England, at least) is past tense, AFAIK