LINGUIST List 3.65

Thu 23 Jan 1992

Disc: Not, Big Time, Synaesthesia

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Dr M Sebba, NOT
2. Margaret E. Winters, Big Time
3. , synaesthesia

Although I'm a native speaker, I read the discussion of "NOT" as though
it were about a foreign language I knew nothing of.
Question: Is this the usage of "not" which occurred in Garry Trudeau's
Doonesbury cartoon on January 9th, where an adult New York woman (not
a regular character, but age about 30 maybe) says:
"He's a snappy dresser, not"?
If so, does its appearance in this format indicate anything about it
spreading?

Mark Sebba
Dept. of Linguistics
University of Lancaster, Lancaster LA1 4YT, England
Telephone (0524) 65201 ext. 2241 (W) (0524) 69223 (H)
Fax: (0524) 843085
e-mail: eia023uk.ac.lancaster.central1

`Big time' as an adverb hit Carbondale (and presumably some
larger part of the midwest) several years ago in the mid 1980's.
When queried, students of mine (the usual group of undergraduate
naive native speakers) explained to me that it meant `very' and
that
 I'm hungry big time
was a better sentence than
 I'm big time hungry
although the latter is also possible.

I don't remember hearing it any time recently, but I'll start
listening actively for it again.

Of course English isn't supposed to have postposed intensifiers,
but it certainly existed/exists in the speech of undergraduates.

 Margaret Winters

There is a lyric by the French poet Arthur (sic) Rimbaud called 'Voyelles'
('Vowels') which has troubled critics and those interested in synaesthesia
(a perhaps intersecting class). It begins,

 A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles,
 Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes....

Which can be roughly translated:

 Black A, white E, red I, green U, blue O: vowels,
 Some day I shall tell of your hidden births....

I'm pleased that he was considerate enough not to use any accent markes
in those first two lines of his sonnet! Poetry lovers, read the whole
poem and enjoy!