Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1993 03:34:59 -0800

From: Donald Livingston deljr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]U.WASHINGTON.EDU

Subject: Re: some U.S. "Midland" regionalisms?



The first times I heard the phrase "I'm wanting to ..." it sounded

quite unnatural to my Arizona-bred ear. Almost all emotion verbs and

desire verbs sounded wrong that way. But I really think there has been a

shift toward using them in the progressive. It no longer sounds odd to

me to hear something like, "I'm hating what's going on at the office" or

more to the point "I'm hating staying up to three o'clock in the morning

writing essays on vowel reduction". I might even expect to hear nowadays

something like "I'm gonna be hatin' stayin' up till three o'clock

tomorrow morning writing a critique of Hayes analysis of voice

assimilation." And now "I'm fearing my end-of-the-quarter grade" sounds

OK, too, though I don't think I would have used the progressive twenty

years ago. "I'm loving it" sounds normal now, but once again, I don't

think I would have said it twenty years ago. Is anyone else out there

thinking that they are noticing the progressive forms becoming more common?



All the best, Don.