Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 04:59:49 -0400

From: "M. Lynne Murphy" 104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA

Subject: Re: drop off



luanne said:



In message Mon, 7 Oct 1996 12:20:48 -0400,

"Dale F.Coye" CoyeCFAT[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM writes:



However, in a different construction, I've got a friend from California

who makes me shudder every time she says:



Do your kids want to come with?



Very common here in Wisconsin. I've even started saying it since I've lived

here.



Definitely German influence.



this seems to be something that slips very easily into english from

different sources in different places. (interesting to think about

why some things are easier to get into english than others. are our

germanic roots showing?) it's a feature of south african english,

where it comes from afrikaans, but is not limited (as it seems to be

in some people's amerenglish) to constructions with "with". here,

you can drop any object, given sufficient context, as in:



"do you want?"

"no thanks, i've got."



i actually like this. i feel so racy saying such incomplete things.



lynne



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