I need me an audience!

Don't miss this interesting talk on Thursday evening!


Friends of Linguistics At the University of Toronto [flaut]
and
The Society of Linguistics Undergraduate Students (SLUGS)
present a lecture by

AILIS COURNANE
PHD Student, University of Toronto

I need me an audience!

Southern United States English (SUSE) has an interesting reflexive
construction which behaves quite unlike Standard English reflexive
constructions. In Standard English one can say the sentences in (1) but not
those in (2). All the sentences are grammatical in SUSE.

1) a. I wrote myself a letter
b. I bought myself a car (*for my son)
2) a. I wrote me a letter to the president
b. I bought me a car (for my son)

The bolded pronoun in (2) is called a Personal Dative (PD). In this talk
Ms. Cournane will discuss the development of the Personal Dative from
reflexive constructions in Old English. She will also show how the SUSE
reflexive constructions are similar to double object constructions found in
a wide variety of languages. Multimedia clips from football players, folk
songs, politicians, and popular culture will be used to illustrate this
interesting, and widespread, linguistic phenomenon.

PRESENTATION, INFORMAL DISCUSSION AND RECEPTION

Thursday JANUARY 27, 2011
7 ­ 9 p.m.

DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
SIDNEY SMITH HALL
4th floor
LINGUISTICS LOUNGE

OPEN TO ALL STUDENTS, ALUMNI, FACULTY AND FRIENDS
Hope to see you there!