I can't write Faith's voice, wah...

[doyle]

American vocab question: if Robin gave something to Faith as a gift would she say "he bought it to me" (this is what *I'd* say but I strongly suspect that's only correct in my dialect), "he bought it for me" or "he bought it me"? Or something else entirely?

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think of other verbs where that's the case, even other ones to do with position and not coming up with anything. Maybe it's unique to 'sit'... hmm.

I think I'll leave out the verb altogether, just say "she was in the corner" since it's obvious from the next bit she's sitting. Thanks for the heads up!

[nikitangel.livejournal.com]

Welcome! Glad to help, and I always find language stuff interesting.

[marymac.livejournal.com]

The 'was sat' tendency is usually a throwback to Irish. You use doubled verbs sometimes in English because of the way the Irish equivalent originally translated. Adn I can't remeber this in enough detail tonight...

[nikitangel.livejournal.com]

That's pretty cool to know. It makes me think of the way people using American Sign Language use the English, especially if they've used ASL from birth. It's all very interesting!

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

To me as well: I don't speak a word of Irish, but thinking about it my word order is probably very influenced by it (I wouldn't say, to come up with a random example, "Don't you want any ice-cream?" I'd say "Do you not want any ice-cream?")