The Innovative Usage Thread

[Ziz]

Also, I heard my nephew say "Why haven't they caught him up yet?", in the context of overtaking someone running, where I'd've expected "caught up to him"; the former means, to me, to bring someone "up to speed", or make sure they know everything they're expected to and that the group they're associated with do. I'd guess it's on analogy with dative-shifting.

Both "caught him up" and "caught up to him" mean the same for me (catching someone in a race).

Really? For me, the first one can interpret as "to make someone hesitate or make a mistake" (The difficulty of the questions on the test caught him up.), but that sounds a little awkward to me. For me, "to bring someone up to speed" also works, but the "to overtake somebody" meaning only works in the form caught up to him.

Speaking of "caught," are there any American speakers who have caught as [kʰɑt] (with a true back, yet unrounded vowel) and cot as [kʰät]? I include the diaeresis because my [a] isn't as fronted as that of other people in the region of the country where I'm at right now, which actually seems to be cardinal IPA ‹[a]›.

[äreo]

Also, I heard my nephew say "Why haven't they caught him up yet?", in the context of overtaking someone running, where I'd've expected "caught up to him"; the former means, to me, to bring someone "up to speed", or make sure they know everything they're expected to and that the group they're associated with do. I'd guess it's on analogy with dative-shifting.

Both "caught him up" and "caught up to him" mean the same for me (catching someone in a race).

Really? For me, the first one can interpret as "to make someone hesitate or make a mistake" (The difficulty of the questions on the test caught him up.), but that sounds a little awkward to me. For me, "to bring someone up to speed" also works, but the "to overtake somebody" meaning only works in the form caught up to him.

Speaking of "caught," are there any American speakers who have caught as [kʰɑt] (with a true back, yet unrounded vowel) and cot as [kʰät]? I include the diaeresis because my [a] isn't as fronted as that of other people in the region of the country where I'm at right now, which actually seems to be cardinal IPA ‹[a]›.

I think that'd be found pretty commonly in the younger areas of the NCVS-affected region.

And "caught him up" sounds fine to me as an equivalent of "caught up to him".

[Travis B.]

Also, I heard my nephew say "Why haven't they caught him up yet?", in the context of overtaking someone running, where I'd've expected "caught up to him"; the former means, to me, to bring someone "up to speed", or make sure they know everything they're expected to and that the group they're associated with do. I'd guess it's on analogy with dative-shifting.

Both "caught him up" and "caught up to him" mean the same for me (catching someone in a race).

Really? For me, the first one can interpret as "to make someone hesitate or make a mistake" (The difficulty of the questions on the test caught him up.), but that sounds a little awkward to me. For me, "to bring someone up to speed" also works, but the "to overtake somebody" meaning only works in the form caught up to him.

Speaking of "caught," are there any American speakers who have caught as [kʰɑt] (with a true back, yet unrounded vowel) and cot as [kʰät]? I include the diaeresis because my [a] isn't as fronted as that of other people in the region of the country where I'm at right now, which actually seems to be cardinal IPA ‹[a]›.

I think that'd be found pretty commonly in the younger areas of the NCVS-affected region.

And "caught him up" sounds fine to me as an equivalent of "caught up to him".

My mother and most of my relatives I've heard on her side have that actually (she's from Kenosha, and most of her family is from there or Chicago). On other hand, over in Milwaukee the vowel in caught is clearly rounded.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

Also, I heard my nephew say "Why haven't they caught him up yet?", in the context of overtaking someone running, where I'd've expected "caught up to him"; the former means, to me, to bring someone "up to speed", or make sure they know everything they're expected to and that the group they're associated with do. I'd guess it's on analogy with dative-shifting.

Both "caught him up" and "caught up to him" mean the same for me (catching someone in a race).

Really? For me, the first one can interpret as "to make someone hesitate or make a mistake" (The difficulty of the questions on the test caught him up.), but that sounds a little awkward to me. For me, "to bring someone up to speed" also works, but the "to overtake somebody" meaning only works in the form caught up to him.

That's what it is to me, as well.

[faiuwle]

Really? For me, the first one can interpret as "to make someone hesitate or make a mistake" (The difficulty of the questions on the test caught him up.)

I can't get that interpretation without the implications in the context - if it just said "the questions on the test caught him up", I'd probably interpret it as either "he remembered some material he'd forgotten because it was hinted at in the questions" or ?"he got caught up in answering the questions" (what is that - "he got caught up in X" -> ?"X caught him up"? some sort of reverse passive?) That interpretation works with "caught him short" or "caught him out", though.

[finlay]

any other British with a caught-cot merger? I never used to think I had it until I tried discussing it with someone one time and had to say it again with an English accent in order to make the distinction. (well, probably not, but it makes a nice story) In isolation I know there's supposed to be a difference so I say something like [kʰɔʔ] for cot and [kʰɔˑʔ] for caught. (but that vowel could be [ɒ] instead, definitely rounded though)

also i had a friend from London who made fun of me for saying wok and tok, and when i went to Amsterdam last year, there was a chain of chinese restaurants called "wok to walk" and I was the only one in our group that the pun worked for properly.

[Shm Jay]

In the second paragraph of this story, we see a new verb form meaning "to post something on Twitter".

[----]

tweeting? That's pretty old I think.

[Magb]

tweeting? That's pretty old I think.

I assume he's referring to "twaht". I've heard about 5000 "Twitter"/"twat" jokes before though, so I don't know how new it is.

[Chargone]

Also, I heard my nephew say "Why haven't they caught him up yet?", in the context of overtaking someone running, where I'd've expected "caught up to him"; the former means, to me, to bring someone "up to speed", or make sure they know everything they're expected to and that the group they're associated with do. I'd guess it's on analogy with dative-shifting.

Both "caught him up" and "caught up to him" mean the same for me (catching someone in a race).

Really? For me, the first one can interpret as "to make someone hesitate or make a mistake" (The difficulty of the questions on the test caught him up.), but that sounds a little awkward to me. For me, "to bring someone up to speed" also works, but the "to overtake somebody" meaning only works in the form caught up to him.

That's what it is to me, as well.

only context i've ever encountered 'caught him up', it means the same as 'snatch him up', and my brain is fizzling on proper explainations of that, but the structure is used for such things as grabbing a little kid as they run past and lifting them into the air so they can't keep going, birds diveing, grabbing something, and swooping back into the air with it, or as a description of what happens to the individuals taken in the Rapture (christian theological thingy... in this case 'up' is on a different dimensional axis, but whatever.)

to bring someone up to speed is to 'get them caught up' and to come even with someone who is ahead of you is to 'catch up with them'

so far as i've ever heard none of these are interchangeable, at least amongst the group of people i interact with.

[maıráí]

"Caught him up" meaning to grab a child, has a weird storyteller ring to me. More like you're grabbing the child to save him, than simply grabbing him.

My roommate and I have been off-and-on-ly studying language in our dorm.
I don't see any mention of it before, so...
Can anyone give us some info on the constant use of "son"? It's been showing up a lot, especially in the phrase "Shit, son!"
I hear it all the time, from guys to other guys. It usually seems rude or threatening. In a generally happy statement, it can either punctuate how happy the speaker is, or make the listener seem... inferior. Somehow. Is this just a dorm thing? Do you guys hear all the young men saying it?

We've used Nightsday (after midnight, when it's technically the next day, but you haven't slept) and Daysday (the day you haven't woken up for yet).

Me and some of my friends use a sort of negative particle "ni" always used in combination with "no" when asking about something, but expecting a negative answer or when being told the other disapproves of something.

"Y/N" is my friends' favorite question particle.

"We're leaving now Y/N."
"Y."

"This is so good, Y/N!"
"NNNNNNN."

We also have a weird way of expressing our emotional state using "have/has",

Example:
I have sadness / I has sadface = I'm sad
I have happiness / I has happyface = I'm happy
I have anger / I has madface = I'm angry.
I have amusement / I has amused face = I'm amused

You can occasionally hear (during non-serious conversations)
"I AM DIE."
"But I am read that book already."
"I am etted all your chips and don't kill me please."
"She is left us to die out here."

Is that weird past tense also lolcat?


And "for to", as in
"I am for to et all your chips!"

What the heck is this?

[Astraios]

Object-dropping, anybody?

*X holds out dish with the last piece of rugelach*
X: "Do you want?"
Me: "No, I already took, you have instead."
X: "Yay, so I'll have the last."

[Chargone]

Object-dropping, anybody?

*X holds out dish with the last piece of rugelach*
X: "Do you want?"
Me: "No, I already took, you have instead."
X: "Yay, so I'll have the last."

err, is that meant to be 'you have it instead' or 'you can have it instead'? the latter is more natural to me, but would mean you'd dropped ... what, part of the verb? an adverb? what is 'can' in that context? meh *shrugs*

people i interact with would say it more like

"you want?"
"nah, already had some. it's all yours"
"awesome, i'll have the rest then."

which in the first line drops (part of) the verb as well as the object, keeps the object but employs idiom and drops a subject pronoun (and part of the verb) in the second, and phrases the last quite differently.

.... most of this message brought to you by my rambly brain, as the only really relevant bit is the first paragraph. oh well.

so, yeah, object dropping, we has it. just not That much. (lolcats strike once more.)

[Astraios]

err, is that meant to be 'you have it instead' or 'you can have it instead'? the latter is more natural to me, but would mean you'd dropped ... what, part of the verb? an adverb? what is 'can' in that context? meh *shrugs*

I said object-dropping, not anythingelse-dropping. So it's instead of "you have it instead", not "you can have it instead".

[Chargone]

err, is that meant to be 'you have it instead' or 'you can have it instead'? the latter is more natural to me, but would mean you'd dropped ... what, part of the verb? an adverb? what is 'can' in that context? meh *shrugs*

I said object-dropping, not anythingelse-dropping. So it's instead of "you have it instead", not "you can have it instead".

i half figured, but without the 'can' it seemed odd (and i just figured out why: if i (or the people i deal with regularly) left off the 'can' i'd leave off the 'instead' too. in fact, the instead would get dropped first.) so i thought i'd check

[äreo]

"The suspect was described as a younger male, skinnier, 5 feet, 8 inches to 6 feet tall..."
Interesting use of the comparative there. I've heard it and used it the same way, but I'm not sure how to describe it. Dubitative? Undefined comprative?

[----]

I'm not sure what that'd be called grammatically but to me that means something like 'skinnier than you would expect the normal person to be'. I've heard that construction plenty of times, and used it myself.

[TomHChappell]

Thursday (two days ago) I heard
"So what are your guys's ideas?"
meaning
so what are 2ndPl-GEN ideas?

[Bob Johnson]

"So what are your guys's ideas?"

Yeah, I've heard that too, possibly with a silent 's (i.e. your guys').

[Bob Johnson]

[ɪ.fi.ɡoʊ̯z.n.biːz.ɑɫ.naɪ̯s] <if he goes and ? all nice> (bes, bees, and be's are all wrong)

Not AAVE.

[linguoboy]

I'm not sure what that'd be called grammatically but to me that means something like 'skinnier than you would expect the normal person to be'. I've heard that construction plenty of times, and used it myself.

I thought I'd heard it referred to as an "absolute comparative" before but I can't find any instances of that usage. Wikipedia calls it a "null comparative".

[TomHChappell]

I imagine many of us Americans have heard a "word" that might, as near as we could tell, be spelled "see'f": for instance, "I'll go see'f any iced tea is left.".

Occasionally -- maybe only once, actually -- I've heard it re-analyzed as a verb: viz., "You watch the barbecue while I'm seefing the iced tea is ready."

Anyone else ever heard that, even second-hand?

[linguoboy]

My neighbour's daughter spontaneously pluralised "chef" as /'ʃɛvz/ the other day. But she caught herself and was a bit chagrinned.

There's an ad for an Italian-style chain restaurant that invites people to try their "rigatonis". I wasn't sure I'd heard that correctly, but I've listened to it a couple times now and they use "rigatoni" when referring to the dish or its components and "rigatonis" when referring to the two distinct rigatoni dishes they're offering. (Cf. cheese vs cheeses.)

[TomHChappell]

I read a book that said "it hit her like a piled river". Took me a few seconds to realize they meant "it hit her like a pile-driver".


(Maybe this isn't "innovative usage", but when I decided to post it this was the first thread I thought of.)

[finlay]

I read a book that said "it hit her like a piled river". Took me a few seconds to realize they meant "it hit her like a pile-driver".


(Maybe this isn't "innovative usage", but when I decided to post it this was the first thread I thought of.)

was it a misprint, or did you just misread it? I'm sure there's a thread somewhere for misread things ;p