LINGUIST List 3.638

Tue 18 Aug 1992

Disc: Being have

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. "Ellen F. Prince", report: being have
2. Monica Macaulay, being have
3. Michael Kac, Being have

thanks to the many many people who responded to my query about _being have_
'behaving'. most reported that their children had invented it independently,
typically in response to 'behave!'--'i *am* being have!' two, however,
reported adult usage, one in fact as the default form. interestingly, both have
ties to california and texas, for whatever that's worth.

Re Ellen Prince's query about the renanlysis of "behave" as "be + have":
this has long been a joke in my family, ever since my then 3(?)-year old
brother responded to my mother's saying "Behave!" with "I *am* being
have!" But I've never heard of an *adult* saying it!

Monica Macaulay

A recent query (can't remember who it was from) inquired as to whether
Linguist subscribers have encounted *being have* (= *behaving*). I must
confess that it was a new one on me, but this morning my son brought to
my attention a Family Circus strip from the Dec. 29, 1991 Minneapolis
Star Tribune in which this expression occurs (spelled *being hayve*).
So I guess it really is out there.

Michael Kac