The Innovative Usage Thread

[Ser]

Talking about intensifier adverbs for adjectives, I just saw this:

I'm high key salty about this

[Magb]

I don't know of any native-spoken variety of English where "ly" adverbs seem to be on a clear path to disappearing entirely. I don't think I've ever heard "it's entire different" for "it's entirely different," for example. I can't think of the exact conditions right now, but I think there's something like adverbs modifying predicative adjectives are unlikely to be able to be flat, while adverbs modifying verbs/verb phrases are more likely to be able to be flat. Certainly it depends in part on the specific word; "real" is usable as an adverb in any position ("it's real good" is certainly possible and common colloquially).

I remember the book Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs containing some unexpected flat adverbs. Here are a few examples I've found by googling:

"So finally his mouth sealed over, and the whole head would have amputated spontaneous."
"I mean he can walk up to a pusher and score direct."

[Ser]

Talking about adverbs that you'd normally expect to have -ly...

terrible formatted partial grammar

[jal]

From a tweet: "I mean, to me it's very obvious that this whole thread was a classic action of a guy who was born epic privileged, but clarity."
Is "epic" here also a flat adverb? It struck me as odd.


JAL

[Magb]

From a tweet: "I mean, to me it's very obvious that this whole thread was a classic action of a guy who was born epic privileged, but clarity."
Is "epic" here also a flat adverb? It struck me as odd.

Yes it is. It could also have been a copy editing error where the original phrase was something like "born into epic privilege".

Personally I think I would actually prefer "epic privileged" to "epically privileged", which just feels awkward.

On the other hand I have no idea how to parse the "but clarity" on the end, unless they just left out a "with".

[jal]

On the other hand I have no idea how to parse the "but clarity" on the end, unless they just left out a "with".

Me neither. But this person has a colourful language ("Also to those who think I was inventing to be writerly: dudes, I'm a writer already & I sell it. I don't need to imagine bro-fail for free."), so it might be some slang.


JAL

[linguoboy]

Trying to figure out whether this is verbification or a typo for "do something". Have any of you noticed "something" being verbed before?

When you send a message to the team advising them how to something the right way...

[Vijay]

I had to read that three times before I even realized that the word 'do' was missing, so I think it's just a typo.

[Viktor77]

Yea, I'm pretty confident they just forgot "do."

BTW, is the following a feature of AAVE or Southern English? "Over there it's a bench for lazy people." I would prefer repeating "there" or some other adverb of location but I recently heard a Southern African American utter the above sentence.

[Axiem]

AAVE or Southern English?

I think sometimes it might be difficult to disentangle the two, based on what I understand of the history of the two dialects. But if'n I had to guess:

"Over there it's a bench for lazy people."

I've heard this construction before, and consider it "correct" English (even if it's not how I would normally phrase it), which probably means that it's from AAVE. I attended middle/high school among a large number of AAVE speakers, so if I've heard it, I kinda assume it's AAVE rather than Southern English.

I'm also no expert, aside from my own experiences and reasonable guesses. So take with a liberal dash of salt.

[Bristel]

"I'm shook" = "I'm shaken emotionally".

[gmalivuk]

"I'm shook" = "I'm shaken emotionally".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Shook_Up

[linguoboy]

"I'm shook" = "I'm shaken emotionally".

This is one of those phrases that's only recent made the crossover from Southern/AAVE speech to current slang. I've also seen the spelling "shewk".

[gmalivuk]

only recent made the crossover

Was that intentional?

[linguoboy]

only recent made the crossover

Was that intentional?

Were that it had been...

[Viktor77]

I've noticed Brits tend to say 'Theresa' with a voiced /z/ and Americans with a voiceless /s/.

[finlay]

"I'm shook" = "I'm shaken emotionally".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzDFNj4Y-Q8

[Axiem]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's typical of children, but my (almost-three-year-old) son has interpreted a lot of verbs as ending in /ju:/.

For example, he will say things like:
"Mommy carry-you!" to mean "Mommy, carry me"
"Mommy give-you book!" to mean "Mommy, give me the book"
"Mommy, pick-you up!" to mean "Mommy, pick me up"

and so on.

Our daughter went through a similar phase, but she ended it pretty quickly. He's just kept at it for months. It's a little endearing...

[jal]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's typical of children, but my (almost-three-year-old) son has interpreted a lot of verbs as ending in /ju:/.

I don't think he has interpreted it that way. I think he's just copying adult questioning into his regular speech. "Shall mommy carry you?" "Yeah, mommy carry you!" etc.


JAL

[Ryusenshi]

This week in Extreme Word Reduction: I heard myself saying very weird stuff.

- "Qu'est-ce que j'ai fait de mes clés ?" (what did I do with my keys?) as [kʃʃe fɛn me kle].
- "Quand ça sera le moment" (when the time comes) as [kz̃ ʁɐl mo mɒ̃] with something like a syllabic nasalized fricative! (which I can't manage to type in IPA.)
- "Qu'est-ce qu'il fait ?" (what's he doing?) as [ks̩ sʲi fɛ].

[jal]

This week in Extreme Word Reduction: I heard myself saying very weird stuff.

I think that's fairly typical for these kind of standard formulae. E.g. in Dutch, "Dat vind ik niet" ([dɑt vɪnt ɪk nit]) can easily be reduced to [dvɪŋkˈni], or "Als je dat niet wilt" ([ɑls jə dɑt nit ʋɪl]) to [ɑjdɑniˈʋɪl].


JAL

[gach]

Similarly, a friend of mine tells that his dad, who speaks the Porvoo dialect of Finland Swedish, regularly says Det är så bra ("it's good") as [hɛsɔˈbrɑ]. It's not that drastic contraction, but it also includes the regional shift [d] > [h] in unstressed positions, which adds interesting flavour.

[Viktor77]

People down here in Memphis keep asking me "Where are you staying?" to ask where we're living. Is this use of 'to stay' a Southernism?

*Edit* Typo.

[Travis B.]

People down here in Memphis keep asking me "What are you staying?" to ask where we're living. Is this use of 'to stay' a Southernism?

The use of stay is not weird to me, and I am a Wisconsinite, even though it implies impermanence, as if you are there only temporarily. The use of what here is quite odd to me though.

[Viktor77]

People down here in Memphis keep asking me "What are you staying?" to ask where we're living. Is this use of 'to stay' a Southernism?

The use of stay is not weird to me, and I am a Wisconsinite, even though it implies impermanence, as if you are there only temporarily. The use of what here is quite odd to me though.

Oh that's a typo, oops. It should be 'where.'