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

Elliott Lash wrote:
[snip]
>
> As for more general British dialects, it is common to say 'I am/was
> sat in the pub drinking a beer' as opposed to standard
> British/American English 'I was sitting in the pub drinking beer.'
As a native British speaker, I can concur that Elliot is quite correct
with this observation. Indeed, "I was sat ..." seems to have become the
norm in the colloquial speech of much of England & Wales (don't know
about Scotland), and still irks this old-timer who still regards "I was
sitting ..." as 'standard'   ;)

Similarly "They are/were stood ...." is now more likely to be heard than
"They are/were standing ...." - this still suggests to me that someone
came along and stacked them up there     :)

Down in south east Wales where I lived for 22 years, the common
vernacular for "He was lying [down] ...." is "He was laid [down] ..."
with 'laid' pronounced exactly like 'led'!

But to home in on just syntax seems to me a bit narrow - it's often
bound with difference in morphology as well. For example the standard
"I'm coming" is construed as the imperfective _participle_ being use as
the complement of the verb 'to be' just as an adjective might be used
(e.g. I am tall). But the archaic and dialect "I'm a-coming" is somewhat
different in that here 'coming' is the gerund or verbal noun following
the prefix a-, a reduced form of 'on' (Old English 'an'). I'd prefer to
talk of differences of _grammar_.

Is the old West Sussex use of 'her' with the meaning of 'he' or 'she' to
be regarded as a difference of grammar or the use of a different pronoun
from standard English (i.e. a difference of lexis). Anyway, I give these
examples quoted from William Durrant cooper's "A Glossary of the
Provincialisms of the County of Sussex: (London, 1853):
"I see un" (I saw him).
"A blackbird flew up, and her kill'd'n" (A blackbird flew up and he
killed it).
"Let'n bide" (Let it remain)
"Let um goo" (Let them go)
"Caünt her see?" (Can't she see?)

One characteristic of Sussex speech was still persisted when I was young
(and may well still linger on) is the use of long phrases instead of
more simple (phrasal) prepositions, e.g.
"'Tis all along down on account of her deafness" = It's because of her
deafness.

The infinitive is/was not used by itself in many dialects to express
purpose as in standard English, but is/was preceded by 'for' in this
usage or, in Sussex, more often by "all for" as we see in the
traditional Sussex Christmas carol:

"When sin departs before His grace,
Then life and health come in its place.
When sin departs before His grace,
Then life and health come in its place.
Angels and men with joy may sing
All for to see the new-born King."

--
Ray
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http://www.carolandray.plus.com
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Frustra fit per plura quod potest
fieri per pauciora.
[William of Ockham]