VPE examples
~P marks non-parallel exx (of various sorts)
coding: X ant (antecedent), Y ell (ellipsis/anaphor)
items without coding (and with bold-faced number) present some special issue in ell-ant relationship
1. BSE ant, PSP ell
“You don’t want to freak out mothers more than they already are,” she says.
(Darcy White, quoted by Otto Pohl, “European Environmental Rules Propel Change in U.S.”, NYT Science Times, 7/6/04, p. D4; transitive paired with intransitive)
2. from a presentation by Kaily Lam in the SHC Undergraduate Research Symposium 5/25/06, on venture philanthropy:
… no way to find out if these [aid] organizations are following through with what they say they are.
For a few centiseconds, you think, oh, with what they say they are following through with. But no, that doesn’t make sense. She must mean something like: with what they say they are doing. In which case this is really airy zero anaphora, pulling out a predicate that’s merely in the air.
Ungrammatical, but apparently comprehensible. I suspect I was the only person in the audience who had any trouble with it.
3. PRP ant, BSE ell
Sean Kennedy interview of the openly gay Reverend Tommie Watkins, head of the Watkins Group LLC, “which helps faith- and community-based organizations reach out to men of color”, The Advocate of 5/9/06, p. 4:
[Kennedy:] What makes you so passionate about ending religious bigotry?
[Watkins:] Because it has to. Unless it does, we’re dying as a community.
[AZ: that is, it has to end; transitive paired with intransitive]
4. Domagk, for his part, believed that he had run his tests flawlessly. Almost every time they tested an azo dye with a sulfa side chain, it killed strep; almost every time it did not [have a sulfa side chain], the effect was absent or greatly reduced.
(Thomas Hager, The Demon Under the Microscope (Harmony Books, 2006), p. 174; cf. #9 below)
5. From: zwicky@Turing.Stanford.EDU (Arnold Zwicky)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: NYT dangling infinitive
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006
In article , Brian M. Scott wrote:
>On Thu, 28 Sep 2006 07:13:36 GMT, Ron Hardin wrote in
in sci.lang:
>>The NYT editors write
>>Those men could have been tried and convicted long ago, but President Bush chose not to.
>>Must have been a rewrite. […]
>Where have you been? It’s a very common construction.
Well, Verb Phrase Ellisis leaving infinitival “to” as a remainder (“stranding” it) is indeed very common, but what Ron is objecting to here is a special case of VPE stranding “to”, in which the omitted VP is active voice, but the antecedent is passive.
VPE requires a linguistic antecedent — it’s not enough that the appropriate verbal semantics be “in the air” — but it doesn’t require that the omitted VP match the antecedent perfectly. The omitted VP will always be a bare-form VP, but the antecedent can be a different non-finite form, or finite:
(1) [-ing-form antecedent] Stanford University and the city of Palo Alto are opening up their joint meetings to the public for the first time in three decades “because there’s no reason not to,”…
(2) [finite antecedent] Mercedes ranks high for dependability but not as high as it used to.
The omitted VP can have an extraction site in it:
(3) Doesn’t DOMA say the Feds don’t have to pay attention to any state marriage laws they don’t want to [pay attention to ___]?
The omitted VP can have a generic NP where the antecedent has a specific:
(4) The jury convicted her not because of anything Larry Stewart said, but for the reason juries are supposed to [convict people]…
As far as i know, these (and some other) mismatches between the omitted VP and its antecedent are ok for everybody. The mismatch in the NYT example is grosser than these, however: the ingredients of the omitted VP (“try and convict those men”) are available in the linguistic context, but in a very different structure. Ron – not surprisingly, given his other judgments seeking formal matching as much as possible — objects that this disparity is too much.
But once again it’s too much *for him*. There are other people who have no problem with this mismatch — lots of them, I believe. There’s no reason to think that the sentence was an inadvertent error on the part of the writer(s), and I see that the sentence remains in the on-line NYT. (The paper does in fact correct inadvertent errors and infelicities on-line, when it catches them. It’s a lot like fixing things for the second or later editions.)
(I have hundreds and hundreds of “to”-stranding VPE examples in a database, but unfortunately they’re not coded for things like active elided VP with passive antecedent, and I’m not about to spend significant amounts of time looking for examples of things that sound fine to me. Anyway, Ron might just say they were errors too.)
6. BSE ant, PRP ell
“We cannot allow energy to divide Europe as Communism once did,” José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, told The Financial Times. But it is.
(Thomas L. Friedman, “The Really Cold War”, op-ed piece in NYT, 10/25/06, p. A19)
~P7. BSE ant, BSE ell (twice)
Corey: You don’t want to leave the Cove.
Kevin: I do, and I will.
(from the tv series Dante’s Cove; I do [want to leave the Cove], and I will [leave the Cove])
8. BSE ant, PRP ell
And yet NOO is not “slang” — it’s grammar. One could write a whole paper on it (and, as it happens, one is!).
(John McWhorter, “Back to Bentolila”, Language Log #3971, 12/27/06; comment in Log 4522)
9. The difference extends across race lines: black women are significantly less likely to marry than white women, but among blacks, women with a college education are more like likely to marry than those who do not.
(Kate Zernike, “Why Are There So Many Single Americans?”, NYT Week in Review, 1/21/07, p. 4; “do not [have a college education] – possibly a combo of “women who have a college education… those who do not” and “women with a college education… those without one” [cf. #4 above])
10. from Paul Kay in e-mail, 2/16/07 [cf. #4, #9]:
From page 1 of today’s NY Times:
Craig Robinson has a pretty famous brother-in-law with big ambitions, but so does he as the new coach who is trying to overhaul the basketball program at Brown. [i.e., CR also has big ambitions]
11. BSE ant, PRP ell
The Advocate 4/24/07, p. 8, letter from Robert Barzan of Modesto, Calif., about the development of gay life there:
If this can happen in Modesto, it can happen anywhere, and it is.
(comment in Log 4522; note quantifier issue)
~P12. FIN ant, BSE & PRP ell
Eric Bakovic, on Language Log 5/22/07:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004517.html
All completely unnecessary, if you ask me (though, of course, nobody did or is).
(comment in Log 4522)
13. from the final episode of the tv series Charmed:
A: I just want Christy back.
B: You might be able to. [get her back]
14. [Documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker:] “I guess I tried to make that film as true to my vision of him as I could make it. But as a storyteller, I wanted there to be stories in it.”
Pennebaker was aided in this regard by Bob Neuwirth, a singer and painter who served as Dylan’s tour manager. Neuwirth had proved himself Dylan’s equal in droll acerbity – he’s the one who jokes, “Joan’s wearing one of those see-through blouses you don’t even want to!” – and he clearly saw part of his job as providing entertaining moments for the camera.
( http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features/article2486987.ece
Andy Gill, article on Pennebaker’s rockumentary Don’t Look Back (on Bob Dylan), The Independent, 4/27/07 – pointer from Empty Pockets 10/15/07)
15. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005069.html
October 29, 2007
VPE IN MLB
In honor of the Boston Red Sox’ World Series sweep, here’s a small linguistic gem from Curt Schilling’s blog, for Arnold Zwicky’s VPE collection. This comes from a darker time, back in mid-September when it looked like maybe the Sox would collapse and lose the pennant race to the New York Yankees (“Character test incoming”, 9/20/2007):
>>Ouch. I certainly envisioned the start on Sunday ending in a much different manner than it did, but it didn’t.For those second guessing anything, from me being in the game to my throwing a ‘hanging’ fastball, don’t.I had Jason in a spot to do a bunch of different things to end the AB, and didn’t.Tip your hat to the Yanks for playing as well as they have too, regardless of how well anyone has done they’ve put themselves into this position by answering the bell when they needed to.<<
Posted by Mark Liberman at October 29, 2007 09:14 AM
16. FIN ant(s), PRP ell
From: david.hilberg@gmail.com
Subject: VPE (Damn Kids)
Date: October 29, 2007 11:57:00 AM PDT
To: zwicky@csli.stanford.edu
(I love the way the syntax echoes the sense. – David Hilberg)
"Damn kids made the Internet what it is today, fer chrissakes. Revolutionized media. Broke all the rules. Still are."
American kids, dumber than dirt
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/a/2007/10/24/notes102407.DTL
17. BSE ant, BSE ell
My mom tried to calm me down, but I couldn’t.
(opinion piece on KQED, 11/1/07 – speaker is teenaged girl; BSE ant and ell, but transitive matched with intransitive)
~P18. BSE ant, BSE ell; BSE ant, PRP ell
Snail 1: C’mon you were supposed to jump and run away in terror.
Snail 2: I did and I am!
(Partially Clips cartoon, noted by John Lawler in e-mail 12/10/07; in Log #5200)
~P19. (from Log #5200) FIN ant, BSE ell; NP ant, NP ell
This is a story — I don’t recall where I first heard or read it — about a young man’s first sexual encounter with another man. As the young man tells it, in the version I remember:
I was holding his hard cock, staring at it, and he said to me, “You put your mouth on that and you’re a cocksucker.” So I did ___ and then I was ___.
(with base-form VP put my mouth on it and predicative NP a cocksucker as the ellipses; remember that the ellipses in VPE are not always VPs, despite the name). The only version of the story I’ve been able to find on the net is in the “queer quotes” section of the Queer Resources Directory, and it’s less syntactically exciting than the dual VPE version I recall:
The first time I was naked in a bed with another boy for the express purpose of having sex, I paused, holding his erection, thinking “Put your mouth on that and you’re a cocksucker!” And then I was. — Ronald Ramage
~P20. FIN ant, BSE ell
from Coby Lubliner, 12/11/07:
Here’s a nice example from Jon Carroll’s (very funny), column today, .
If signing the slip meant anything, it could not be waived for the sake of convenience, but it doesn’t, so it can.
(FIN ant, BSE ell + BSE ant & ell)
~P21. From: porges@porg.es (George Pollard)
Subject: common usage of VPE
Date: December 13, 2007
To: zwicky@csli.stanford.edu
I was lying on our couch reading (well, browsing) the Oxford Style Guide, when I happened to hear one in the background—on Coronation Street. Here it is, as well as I can remember it:
Boy: “Can I have a drink—you’re having one, right?”
Girl: “Yes you can, and no I’m not.”
I don’t think I would have even noticed it had I not read your post yesterday
(BSE ant & ell + PRP ant & ell)
22. BSE ant, PRP ell
I promised you back in April that I would post on hypallage, and now I am.
(AMZ, deliberate play,
in http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005186.html )
23. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: They’re not looking for cooperation. They told us to back off.
B: And are we?
(exchange in Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode “30”, seen in re-runs 12/31/07; ell is either backing off or going to back off)
24. FIN ant, BSE ell
I Am America (And So Can You)
(Colbert book title, discussed in Log 4522; plus ellipsis problem)
25. BSE ant, PRP ell (twice)
A: I thought I told you to lie down.
B: I was. I am.
(tv show NCIS, “Twilight” (2005))
26. PRP ant, PSP ell
so you’re offering to organize a Rochester .con? no one else has.
(AMZ in e-mail to Robert Coren 2/5/08)
27. BSE ant, PSP ell
Bad Guy: You won’t get away with this.
Walker: I already have.
(“Family Matters” episode of Walker, Texas Ranger, seen in re-runs March 2008)
28. BSE ant, PRP ell
to Victor Steinbok 5/3/08, in reply to his message of 5/2/08:
>http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/192585.php
>One oil company could cut its gas prices, but it can’t sell any more gas than it already is…
Straightforward Verb Phrase Ellipsis problem: an elliptical present participle (understood: selling) with a base-form antecedent (“sell”). These are surprisingly marginal in general: “I want you to _work_ on your paper, unless you already are ___.” The comparative adds a little complexity to processing in your example, but the real problem is with VPE.
A past-participle ellipsis with base-form antecedent is much better: “it can’t sell any more gas than it already has”
>Another version might be something like: You can’t be doing more than you already have. Different modalities, same issue.<
Well, actually, a different issue. This one has a past-participle ellipsis with a present-participle antecedent. Also generally marginal.
~P29. BSE ant, BSE and PRP ell
Lawyer: You can’t do this.
Judge: I can, and I am.
(“Damaged” episode of Law and Order Special Victims Unit, seen in re-runs June 2008)
30. FIN ant, BSE ell
I lost weight with Jenny Craig, and you can too.
(tv ad for Jenny Craig weight-loss program, seen July 2008; entirely unremarkable)
?~P31. … I opined that the noun ask was likely to be venerable, probably going back to Old English. And so it is and does, but the full story is more interesting …
(AMZ on http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=340 ; AP ellipsis (venerable) with is, and antecedent AP, plus base-form VP ellipsis (go back to Old English) with does, and antecedent present-participial VP)
?32. FIN ant, BSE ell have bushy eyebrows
Bob Kelleher has bushy eyebrows. Supporters can, too.
(photo caption in Kirk Johnson’s “Candidate Shocks Party And Himself”, NYT 8/12/08, p. A15, about Montana senatorial candidate Bob Kelleher)
33. FIN ant, BSE ell be cheering, or possibly cheer
But the notion that his departure is a victory for the extremists and a setback for their enemies is wrong. The extremists are indeed cheering; but so should Pakistan’s allies.
(“Another Bushman down” [on Pakistan], The Economist 8/23/08, p. 11)
34. PRP ant, PSP ell
Leanne McIntyre (Ben Matlock’s daughter): We’ve been growing apart.
Ben: I didn’t think we were.
Leanne: Well, we have.
(Matlock episode, “The Assassination: Part 2”, first aired 5/8/92 (season 6); Ben’s VPE is entirely straightforward, PRP ant and ell, but Leanne’s is a bit more complicated)
35. BSE ant, PRP ell
Buy American. I Am.
(title of Warren Buffett op-ed piece in the NYT 10/16/08)
36. PRP ant, BSE ell
General: Henry, are you sitting down?
Henry Blake: No.
General: Well, then maybe you’d better.
(M*A*S*H episode, “Cease-Fire”, first aired 3/18/73)
37. FIN ant, BSE ell
This sounds dated and is meant to.
(Sam Tanenhaus, “Mr. Wizard” (review of The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike), NYT Book Review, 10/26/08, p. 10)
38. PRP ant, BSE ell
We should be hearing the swarm. So why don’t we?
(from an episode of Charmed)
39. BSE ant, PRP ell
Opal just said “My mom said I could have some pickle juice and I am”.
(from EDZ 12/4/08)
40. PSP ant, BSE ell
Santa’s gone Centro
SO CAN YOU
(e-ad for the Palm Centro 12/9/08)
41. PP ant, PP ell
A: I never wanted to be in the Navy.
B: But you are.
(NCIS episode; perfectly matched, perfectly ordinary – but a PP example)
42. FIN ant, BSE ell
Whitening Booster reaches places other whitening systems don’t.
(tv ad for Arm & Hammer Whitening Booster, seen December 2008)
43. BSE ant, PRP ell
A. But Egypt, Syria, Jordan, they can all help.
B. But are they?
(Lebanese interviewed in Beirut about the Palestinian situation, NPR Morning Edition 1/6/09)
44. BSE ant, PSP ell
Darrin: I’ll stake my job on it.
Larry: You have.
(exchange on Bewitched episode “Daddy Comes to Visit” (1969))
45. FIN ant, BSE ell
Ever wish you had sonic hearing? Well, now you can!
(tv ad for Sonic Hearing Aids, caught January 2009)
46. BSE ant, PSP ell
Overheard in New York — on Broadway & 44th
Guy #1: Whatever, you could feign interest in this conversation.
Guy #2: I am.
(P.A. University South News 1/14/09)
47. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: The boy doesn’t live here.
B: I’m told he is.
(“The Landlord” episode of In the Heat of the Night)
48. PRP (nominal gerund) ant, PSP ell
Incarcerating people who do not need to be is not only illegal but inhumane.
(“California’s Crowded Prisons”, NYT editorial 2/14/09, p. A18)
49. ??
A: Don’t you love it when men call you “baby”?
B: I never have.
(Matlock, episode “The Witness”; presumably, the ellipsis is something like had a man call me “baby”, a PSP VP)
50. FIN ant, BSE ell
“I represent them; they just don’t want me to.”
(Bruce Wisan, quoted by Andrew Gumbel in “Prophet Without Honor: Among the Polygamists in Hildale and Colorado City”, The Atlantic, April 2009, p. 21)
51. BSE ant, PRP ell
I want you to do better than I am.
(Father to son in U.S. Army recruiting ad, seen March 2009)
52. PRP ant, BSE ell
Statistics show Americans are paying down debt, except of course for those who cannot.
(NPR’s Morning Edition 3/31/09)
53. ? PSP ant, BSE ell
Cop: You been to the school recently?
Interviewee: Why would I?
(Law and Order episode; presumably, the elliptical material is go to the school)
~P54. FIN ant, BSE ell; BSE ant, BSE ell
Cop: I’ll bet you made Luther promise no guns.
Interviewee: I did, and he did.
(Law and Order episode; I did [make Luther promise], he did [promise])
55. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: Virgil would never leave Sparta.
B: But he is.
(In the Heat of the Night episode)
56. PRP ant, BSE ell
Predicting the weather the way only slugs can.
(Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! 5/2/09)
57. PRP ant, BSE ell
Now that I’m older it’s getting a little more kinky than I ever imagined it would.
(porn mag 5/09)
58. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: I can’t go back to prison.
B: You’re not.
(Law and Order: SVU episode)
59. PRP ant, BSE ell
Whatever Lance Corporal Finn was planning on putting in here, he didn’t get a chance to.
(NCIS episode)
60. BSE ant, PRP ell
A. You can’t do this.
B. We are.
(Cold Case episode)
~P61. PSP ant, PSP ell; PSP ant, BSE ell
Psychiatrist: Have you been taking your medicine?
Patty Duke: I have, and I do.
(exchange reported by Patty Duke on Commonwealth Club of California Radio Program, heard 8/15/09)
62. BSE ant, PRP ell
You say to let Mary handle it, but she’s not.
(7th Heaven episode)
63. FIN ant, BSE ell
We work hard so you don’t have to.
(Scrubbing Bubbles commercial, seen 9/09)
64. FIN ant, PRP ell
Ever worn your clothes in the shower? If you’re using other moisturizing body washers, you might as well be.
(Dove Deep Moisture commercial, seen 9/09)
65. PRP ant, BSE ell
A: I don’t think Grissom’s coming back.
B: Why wouldn’t he?
(episode of CSI)
66. FIN ant, PRP ell
He gave himself insulin injections daily, and had been for years.
(Boston Legal episode, “Black Widows”)
67. PSP ant, BSE ell (twice, plus PSP ant, PSP ell)
There is some question about whether the Iranian government has filed formal charges against the three or is merely threatening to. We hope it has not and will not.
(“Cruel, Pointless Games”, NYT editorial, 11/11/09)
68. PRP ant, BSE ell
A: Your client’s going to jail, and you’re doing a victory dance?
B: Why shouldn’t I?
(Law & Order episode)
69. FIN ant, PSP ell
Left behind to manage the family’s finances, she [Abigail Adams] arguably did a better job than John would have.
(Virginia DeJohn Anderson, review of Woody Holton’s Abigail Adams, NYT Book Review, 12/13/09, p. 21)
70. PSP ant, BSE ell
And though some of them [Joe Rollino stories] can be neither confirmed nor refuted, they get told and retold and told again, because they are too good not to.
(Manny Fernandez & Michael S. Schmidt, “At a Mighty 104, Gone While Still Going Strong”, NYT 1/12/10, p. A15)
71. BSE ant, BSE ell
If you don’t want to see me, we don’t have to [see each other].
(episode of 7th Heaven, female college student to male)
72. FIN ant, PSP ell
Lawyer: Would you say that Dr. Auster knew he was an alcoholic when he left the clinic?
Witness: He would never have come in the first place if he hadn’t.
(Law & Order episode)
73. FIN ant, BSE ell
… and no-one picked it up, though, granted, on that show you wouldn’t expect them to
(Damien Hall on ADS-L 3/21/10, on the BBC ethical-issues show The Big Questions)
74. BSE ant, PSP ell
Now that cellphone cameras are all but ubiquitous, there isn’t a moment that can’t be snapped – so if the truth were out there, we’d see it. And we haven’t.
(John Schwartz, “Out of This World, Out of Our Minds”, NYT Week in Review 7/4/10, p. 2)
~P75. FIN ant, BSE ell; PSP ant, PSP ell
I guess Rubus varieties look and taste different enough from one another that they’re perceived as different fruits, whereas blueberry and strawberry varieties don’t, and aren’t.
(MWarhol comment 8/10/10 on AZBlog entry “Prunus portmanteaus”)
~P76. BSE ant, BSE ell; AdjP ant, AdjP ell
It would get better by itself and he would be fine, the surgeon promised – and it did, and he was.
(Perri Klass, “That Middle-of-the-Night Bellyache: Appendicitis?”, NYT Science Times 8/10/10)
77. PSP ant (in nominal gerund), BSE ell
She wasn’t even thinking about getting hurt. But then she did.
(NPR Morning Edition story 11/29/10 on a high school soccer player)
78. FIN ant, BSE ell
Salesperson: With Progressive, you get the “name your price” tool. It helps you find the price that’s right for you.
Customer (employed by rival company): Oh, the price gun. Ah oh, wish we had this. We just tell people what to pay.
Salesperson: Yeah, we’re the only ones that do [have this].
(tv commercial for Progressive Insurance, seen repeatedly in 2010-11; antecedent fairly distant)
79. FIN ant, BSE ell
Because we do everything based on seniority, where I lie in the department, they’d have to lay off like 80 people, and we just couldn’t function. So, personally, I feel safe. The guys who are toward the bottom of the list, I can’t speak for them specifically, but if it were me, I wouldn’t [feel safe].
(police officer Nicholas Weber, quoted in “Obama’s Jobs Search” by Peter Baker, NYT Magazine 1/23/11, p. 43; again, antecedent fairly distant)
~P 80. BSE ant, BSE ell; PRP [gerund] ant, PRP [progressive] ell
A: Didn’t you accuse him of harassing you?
B: I did, and he was.
(exchange on Law & Order)
81. PSP ant, BSE ell
To people who have never lived in a full-fledged democracy, it is ludicrous to imagine that President Obama could not have stopped this outrage if he had really wanted to, and could not now arrest the pastor, Terry Jones.
(letter from Dena S. Davis to the NYT, 4/5/11)
~P 82. FIN ant, BSE ell; NP ant, NP ell
But if it walks like voucher, talks like a voucher, and quacks like a voucher, then it’s a voucher.
And it does, and it is.
(http://goo.gl/TWzyp from Victor Steinbok in e-mail 4/4/11)
83. PSP ant, BSE ell – passive ant, active ell
They didn’t get posted last year, somehow, though I intended to.
(AMZ on postcard 4/19/11)
84. BSE ant, PRP ell
What I didn’t say then was that I don’t want them [his family] to read it [his book]. And now that my mother is, I am terrified.
(Rahul Mehta, “My Mother’s Gift”, Details May 2011, p. 64)
~P 85. BSE ant, BSE ell; BSE ant, PSP ell
A: You cannot arrest me.
B: I can, and I have;
(episode of The Closer)
86. PRP ant, BSE ell
A: I’m not driving away.
B: Yes you will.
(episode of Bones)
87. PRP ant, BSE ell
A: What are you doing?
B: What we’re supposed to – serve the clients.
(episode of Angel)
88. PSP ant, BSE ell
I’m a lesbian. I’ve never been with a man in my life, and I never will.
(episode of Bones)
89. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: Regardless of what this woman did, I think she deserves to be punished.
B: I think she is.
(episode of Law & Order)
90. BSE ant, PSP ell
A: Didn’t get an answer.
B: Neither have we.
(“Nine Lives” episode of NCIS)
91. PRP ant (gerund), PSP ell
A: It contains the cipher to breaking the code.
B: And have we?
(“Truth or Consequences” episode of NCIS)
92. FIN ant, BSE ell
I almost died, and I still might.
(episode of House)
93. FIN ant PRP ell
A: You tell the truth! [‘Tell the truth!’]
B: I am!
(episode of NCIS)
94. PRP ant BSE ell
I don’t want anyone drinking on the hall. If you do, I’ll write you up.
(episode of Criminal Minds)
95. BSE ant PRP ell
A: I’m afraid I won’t be able to handle it.
B: But you are.
(episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)
96. PRP ant, BSE ell
A: Why are you being so cold and dispassionate?
B: Because you told me to.
(episode of 30 Rock)
97. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: She deserves to be punished.
B: I think she is.
(episode of Law & Order)
98. BSE ant, PSP ell
A: You’ll never find him.
B: We already have.
(episode of Criminal Minds)
99. PRP ant, BSE ell
In middle-level discourse, such as journalism, which aims at a conversational tone while adhering to the conventions of standard written English, whom is slowly slipping away, and probably should.
(John McIntyre on who/whom)
100. PRP ant, BSE ell
A: I’m not driving away.
B: Yes you will.
(episode of Bones)
101. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: Don’t give me a hard time.
B: I didn’t realize I was.
(episode of NCIS)
102. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: Tell the truth.
B: I am.
(episode of CSI Miami)
103. PRP ant, BSE ell
The pill allows women to avoid getting pregnant when they don’t want to. Alas, it is no help when they do.
(“When the clock never ticks”, New Scientist 4/14/12, p. 3)
~P104. PSP ant, PSP ell; BSE ant, BSE ell
The Byzantines had said that when, as at its founding in A.D. 330, they were again ruled by an emperor named Constantine, son of a Helen, Constantinople would fall, which in 1453 they were and it did.
(“Byzantium”, Harper’s May 2012, p. 34)
105. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: You said I would get better.
B: You are.
(Criminal Minds episode)
[could possibly be ADJ – ADJ]
106. FIN ant, PSP ell
A: He takes care of me.
B: Has he?
(Law & Order episode)
107. FIN ant, BSE ell
At first, she ran because she had to. Eventually, she ran because she loved to.
(Morning Edition Saturday piece on a Kenyan runner 7/28/12)
108. FIN ant, PSP ell
I worried about Bill [Clinton] after his term ended. Would he ever get a good job? I needn’t have.
(Nicole Hollander, comment on cartoons in The Sylvia Chronicles, p. 82)
109. BSE ant, PRP ell
The wife says if you don’t go, she is.
(from The Invisible Man 1933)
110. PSP ant, BSE ell
… designed to be shared with the whole family. You just might not want to.
(Nook ad on tv seen 11/11/12)
111. no linguistic antecedent (VPE as deep anaphora)
In this commercial, a woman appears to be riding a jet ski in the water. However, the woman and the jet ski are on Greg Jennings’ back as he does push-ups. [Jennings says:] You can too with Old Spice Champion.
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7LhM/old-spice-champion-jet-ski-featuring-greg-jennings
(from Larry Horn 1/16/13)
112. PRP ant, BSE ell
If I’m making these suppositions, the police will too.
(Ben Matlock in Matlock episode “The Target”)
113. BSE ant, PSP ell
The Americans do not have that [a credible local partner] in Afghanistan, and they never have.
(Dexter Filkins, “General Principles”, New Yorker 12/17/12, p. 81)
114. BSE ant, PSP ell
You asked me to keep it a secret, and I have.
(Longmire in Longmire tv series)
115. PRP ant, BSE ell
Mark: I’m going to bed, Pa.
Lucas: I guess I will too.
(episode of The Rifleman)
116. PRP ant, BSE ell
Sen. Ted Cruz Blasts Fellow Republicans for Supporting ‘Gang of 8’ Immigration Bill That No One Read
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, June 24, 2013
[Cruz] My point is very simple: what is the rush? Why are we proceeding gangbusters? And the only explanation that makes sense is there are many senators it seems in this body perhaps on both sides of the aisle that very much want a fig leaf. They want something that they can claim we are supporting border security when, in fact, this bill does not.
~P117. BSE ant [transitive] BSE ell [intransitive – or transitive with DO distinct from the DO in the antecedent]
Ken Rudolph on Facebook 6/26/13: Too bad that I don’t have anybody wanting to marry me now that I can.
118. PRP ant, BSE ell
It’s hard to imagine things getting worse in Egypt, but they could.
(NYT editorial, “Egypt on the Edge”, 8/9/13)
119. FIN ant, PSP ell
The Philadelphia School District is an anomaly – unlike many school districts across the country, it has no elected board of education, and never has, at least in modern memory.
(NYT, “A City Borrows So Its Schools Open on Time”, 8/16/13, p. A12)
120. FIN ant, BSE ell
Oracle: Once the bond is formed, perhaps, but it has yet to, which means she’s vulnerable, easily swayed.
(episode of Charmed)
121. BSE ant, PRP ell
Don’t even think about it, unless you want to go to jail, like these guys are.
(episode of Walker, Texas Ranger)
122. FIN ant, PRP ell
She spoke of AIDS before anyone else was.
(announcer at San Francisco Pride Parade, 6/29/14, about Nancy Pelosi)
123. PSP ant, PSP ell;
124. FIN ant, PSP ell
[Dean] Acheson was done with his career and wrote for history. [Hillary] Clinton is not and has not.
(Peter Baker, review of Clinton’s Hard Choices, NYT Book Review, 7/6/14, p. 9)
~P125. PSP ant, BSE ell
A: … New York City.
B: I’ve never been there. Always wanted to [go there], though.
(episode of CSI: NY)
126. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: What if I can’t deal with it, Mac?
B: You already are.
(episode of CSI: NY)
127. BSE ant, PSP ell
All I have to do is ace an apptitude test – which … I’m sure I have.
(episode of Charmed)
128. FIN ant, BSE ell
They get $300 for switching back to Verizon. And so can you.
(tv commercial for Verizon)
129. PRP ant, BSE ell
I was yelling and cursing at her. And who wouldn’t?
(Law & Order episode)
Ellipsis is either (who wouldn’t) yell and curse at her or (who wouldn’t) be yelling and cursing at her — but BSE in either case.
130. PSP ant, BSE ell
A: I’ve never met him.
B: Maybe you should.
(Law & Order episode)
131 BSE ant, PSP ell
A: How did that happen?
B. It shouldn’t have.
(Law & Order episode)
132. BSE ant, PRP ell
Puerto Ricans who can get off the island are.
(NPR Morning Edition 10/3/17
133. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: I don’t want this to become a federal case.
B: It already has.
(NCIS, S14 E9)
134. FIN ant, PRP ell
I protected you. Still am.
(NCIS: Los Angeles S6 E3)
135. BSE ant, PRP ell
A: Do you want to break up? B: No.
A: Me neither. B: But are we?
(NCIS, S12 E18)
136. BSE ant, PSP ell
“Is that really going to happen?” the builder stammered.
“It already has,” Cobb replied.
(NYT Magazine story “Floored” by Guy Lawson, 12/2/18 in print, p. 52)
137. BSE ant, PRP ell
“I have a lot to learn, and still am,” he said.
(Beto O’Rourke, quoted in NYT Magazine story “‘The View’ at the top” by Amanda FitzSimons, 5/26/19 in print, p. 47)
138. PRP ant, BSE ell
“Emotional support” animals are not service animals and I am weary of having to deal with them. Legally, one does not.
Gwendoyn Alden Dean on Facebook 8/28/19
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