End of ADS-L Digest - 22 Nov 1993 to 23 Nov 1993

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There are 8 messages totalling 244 lines in this issue.



Topics of the day:



 1. Query: "run over" (2)

 2. Dialect Diversity?

 3. diversity of accents (3)

 4. testi

 5. Forwarding



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Date:  Wed, 24 Nov 1993 10:29:36 -0500

From:  Mike Agnes <by971[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CLEVELAND.FREENET.EDU>

Subject: Query: "run over"



Query:



LDOCE2 (1987) marks the phrasal verb "run over"

with the symbol <->, indicating, according to

the front matter, that "the object can come either

before ["over"] or after it. But if the object is

a pronoun . . . , it MUST come directly after the

verb."



As a speaker of American English, must I accept

that this accurately describes British English?

My American English, for example, permits both

all of the following:



  She ran him over.

  She ran over him.

  She ran the idiot over.

  She ran over the dog.



Can any speaker of British English confirm that

only the second sentence above is impermissible

in that national variety, and that the others are

grammatical?



Do any speakers of _American_ English sense

differences among the sentences? (Some

informants have detected different registers;

others, the presence or lack of intent. Some

find sentence three marginal.)



Four notes:



(1) We have one printed citation that we presume

is from a writer of British English and that

violates the LDOCE2 prescription:

  "She falls in love with Michael Edwards, a doctor

  who almost runs her over on May Morning, and then

  takes her to breakfast to apologize."

 (2) We note that LDAE retains the <-> symbol in the

entry for "run over," implying that the restrictions

apply in American English. We believe this is in error.

 (3) We note a semantic and syntactic distinction between

the verb in the above sentences and the verb "run over"

in a sample sentence in Quirk, Greenbaum et al.,

"A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language"

(1985):

     The car ran over the bump.

This is given as an example of a Type I prepositional

verb, marked "by the inability of the particle to be

moved to a position after the following noun phrase"

as well as by the fact that "the order of particle

and pronoun is different." The semantic difference is

tellingly mirrored in LDOCE2's definition of "run over":

  "to knock down and pass over the top of"

Bumps, unlike rabbits and other potential roadkill (all

marked as animate), are not knocked down. Also, in

American English the sentence

  *We ran the bump over.

is either ungrammatical or a misprint.

  (4) We have not been able to check the treatment

of "run over" in Anthony Cowie's second edition of

the "Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs" (1993).



Many thanks.



      Mike Agnes

       Internet: by91[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cleveland.freenet.edu

        Bitnet: by971%cleveland.freenet.edu[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cunyvm

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