Thread View: alt.english.usage
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Started by HenHanna
Mon, 03 Feb 2025 03:07
Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: HenHanna
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 03:07
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 03:07
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Where's that at?
------- the [at] at the end gives a Folksy feel
(Southern US, or mid-Western (down to earth) (or "hick") feel
---- Maybe also... there's a connotation of Non-Permanence.
that something was put there recently (like a Sign-post)
----- unlike a mountain that's been there for centuries.
_____________________________
A visitor (played by Joe Pesci) to Harvard Univ. stops a student.
“Can you tell me where the library’s at?”
“At Harvard, we do not end a sentence with a preposition,” the student
upbraids him.
The visitor thinks about it for a moment and rephrases his question.
“Can you tell me where the library’s at, asshole?”
------------- from the movie "With Honors," featuring Joe
Pesci. In this film, he plays a homeless man who interacts with Harvard
students, leading to various humorous and poignant moments.
_____________________________
>>> In Somerset, one of the few lingering regional dialect
quirks that you'll encounter frequently is the use of the preposition
"to" at the end of a question.
For example if The Wurzels were to cover the Scottish folk
song "Donald Where's Your Troosers?" it would be called "Where's
Donald's Trousers To?"
---------- In Devon too. There's the question "Where are you going
to?", and also phrases like "At the end of the road where the pub is
to."
Re: Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: dougstaples@gmx.
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 12:58
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 12:58
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On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:56:35 +0000, Anton Shepelev wrote: > Hen Hanna: > >> Where's that at? > > See also "Where are you at?", e.g. /Where you at/ by Lloyd Price: > > <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K92b9ElL9r4> Alice in Wonderland: "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at! Up above the world you fly, Like a tea tray in the sky".
Re: Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: dougstaples@gmx.
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:53
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:53
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On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 14:31:47 +0000, Anton Shepelev wrote: > LionelEdwards: > >> Alice in Wonderland: >> >> "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! >> How I wonder what you're at! >> Up above the world you fly, >> Like a tea tray in the sky". > > Amos Milburn, pianist and singer (quoted from memory): > >> Vicious, vicious vodka, >> Oh, you dirtry rat: >> Got me on this corner -- >> Now I don't know where I'm at For a better scan you have Byron's finest work: Bob Southey! You're a poet, poet laureate, And representative of all the race. Although 'tis true that you turned out a Tory at Last, yours has lately been a common case. And now my epic renegade, what are ye at With all the lakers, in and out of place? A nest of tuneful persons, to my eye Like four and twenty blackbirds in a pye, Which pye being opened they began to sing' (This old song and new simile holds good), 'A dainty dish to set before the King' Or Regent, who admires such kind of food. And Coleridge too has lately taken wing, But like a hawk encumbered with his hood, Explaining metaphysics to the nation. I wish he would explain his explanation.
Re: Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: Anton Shepelev
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:56
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:56
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Hen Hanna:
> Where's that at?
See also "Where are you at?", e.g. /Where you at/ by Lloyd Price:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K92b9ElL9r4>
--
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Re: Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: lar3ryca
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 16:30
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 16:30
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On 2025-02-03 05:56, Anton Shepelev wrote: > Hen Hanna: > >> Where's that at? > > See also "Where are you at?", e.g. /Where you at/ by Lloyd Price: > > <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K92b9ElL9r4> In Newfoundland, you might hear "Stay where yer to. I'll come where yer at." Perhaps it's the other way around, though. -- I tried to put my horse into a Hubble Barn, But it didn't fit.
Re: Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: Anton Shepelev
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 17:31
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 17:31
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LionelEdwards: > Alice in Wonderland: > > "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! > How I wonder what you're at! > Up above the world you fly, > Like a tea tray in the sky". Amos Milburn, pianist and singer (quoted from memory): > Vicious, vicious vodka, > Oh, you dirtry rat: > Got me on this corner -- > Now I don't know where I'm at -- () ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail /\ www.asciiribbon.org -- against proprietary attachments
Re: Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: Anton Shepelev
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2025 16:26
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2025 16:26
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LionelEdwards quoted Byron: > Bob Southey! You're a poet, poet laureate, > And representative of all the race. > Although 'tis true that you turned out a Tory at > Last, yours has lately been a common case. Some impudent poetic license -- so to break a phrase for the sake of rhyme and rhythm. Was he parodying Bob Southey? -- () ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail /\ www.asciiribbon.org -- against proprietary attachments
Re: Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: jerry.friedman99
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2025 16:40
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2025 16:40
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On Sat, 8 Feb 2025 13:26:04 +0000, Anton Shepelev wrote: > LionelEdwards quoted Byron: > >> Bob Southey! You're a poet, poet laureate, >> And representative of all the race. >> Although 'tis true that you turned out a Tory at >> Last, yours has lately been a common case. > > Some impudent poetic license -- so to break a phrase > for the sake of rhyme and rhythm. Was he parodying > Bob Southey? I think "impudent" is a good description of a lot of Byron's rhymes. Calling Southey "Bob" was also probably impudence. -- Jerry Friedman --
Re: Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: dougstaples@gmx.
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2025 13:34
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2025 13:34
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On Sat, 8 Feb 2025 16:40:49 +0000, jerryfriedman wrote: > On Sat, 8 Feb 2025 13:26:04 +0000, Anton Shepelev wrote: > >> LionelEdwards quoted Byron: >> >>> Bob Southey! You're a poet, poet laureate, >>> And representative of all the race. >>> Although 'tis true that you turned out a Tory at >>> Last, yours has lately been a common case. >> >> Some impudent poetic license -- so to break a phrase >> for the sake of rhyme and rhythm. Was he parodying >> Bob Southey? > > I think "impudent" is a good description of a lot of > Byron's rhymes. Calling Southey "Bob" was also > probably impudence. He could dash off rhymes with insolent skill, helped by his huge vocabulary. Needing two rhymes for "Southey" he found "mouthy" easily enough, but what is another word that rhymes with "Southey"?
Re: Where's that at? (the modality of) (sentence-final At)
Author: dougstaples@gmx.
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:41
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:41
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On Mon, 10 Feb 2025 13:34:44 +0000, LionelEdwards wrote: > On Sat, 8 Feb 2025 16:40:49 +0000, jerryfriedman wrote: > >> On Sat, 8 Feb 2025 13:26:04 +0000, Anton Shepelev wrote: >> >>> LionelEdwards quoted Byron: >>> >>>> Bob Southey! You're a poet, poet laureate, >>>> And representative of all the race. >>>> Although 'tis true that you turned out a Tory at >>>> Last, yours has lately been a common case. >>> >>> Some impudent poetic license -- so to break a phrase >>> for the sake of rhyme and rhythm. Was he parodying >>> Bob Southey? >> >> I think "impudent" is a good description of a lot of >> Byron's rhymes. Calling Southey "Bob" was also >> probably impudence. > > He could dash off rhymes with insolent skill, helped > by his huge vocabulary. Needing two rhymes for > "Southey" he found "mouthy" easily enough, but what > is another word that rhymes with "Southey"? Why not "drouthy"?
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