LINGUIST List 2.424

Wed 21 Aug 1991

Disc: Data, Titles

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Julie Silverman, Re: Queries
2. Dennis Baron, Re: Queries: Searches for Data Corpora
3. Chris Culy, Clarification

Dr. Francis handles the corpus matters for Text Research.
Phone 603-539-6356, fax 603-539-5445, e-mail HENRYBROWNVM.BITNET
- Julie Silverman

is it because _be being_ punches the role play rather than the
more ambiguous simple durative of just plain _be_? `I'm being
the mommy' is more explicit than `I'm the mommy' (which implies
`I'm playing the role of the mommy' rather than actually being
a mother). The thing is that am being, are being, is being are
all very common, and so on, while _be being_, along with such
constructions as _has been being_, will have been being, while
grammatically possible, seem to many speakers to be stylistic
violations and are therefore reduced. Be being does occur in
speech and writing (I had some examples once but don't know
where they've gone to) but it's decidedly rare.

When I asked about linguistic terms in titles, I meant titles of novels.
Sorry about the confusion.
Chris
cculyvaxa.weeg.uiowa.edu