What's Gonna Happen To English??

I heard the following segment on Michigan Radio this morning. It gives a couple of new examples of the elasticity of the American English language and how popular work usage, not grammatical rules or language origins, tend to shape the meanings of words.

To hear the original podcast: Click Here.

This time on "That's What They Say," host Rina Miller and University of Michigan Professor Anne Curzan discuss the colloquial "gonna" and "wanna," and how these words are not just mispronunciations of their original verbs, but are developing their own distinct meanings.

"If you think about the verb 'go' as a main verb, it has directionality to it. So I could say 'I'm going to swim,' which would imply some kind of direction," explains Curzan. "But if I say 'I'm gonna swim,' that means at some point in the future, I'm gonna swim."

Curzan says that this evolution of the meaning of the verbs is due to the lack of definitive future-tense construction in the English language.

"Interestingly in English, some people would say that we don't have future-tense because we only have one tense marker, which is 'ed' for the past-tense. To talk about the future, we use these little auxiliary verbs like 'will,' which also used to be a main verb. Now 'go' is becoming an auxiliary verb. So this is now one of the ways we talk about the future," Curzan says.

"Wanna," says Curzan, is also developing a new auxiliary verb meaning.

"If you say something like, 'You're gonna wanna take a left up there,' it doesn't probably mean that you actually want to take a left; it's a piece of advice. I'm advising you to take a left. It's developed into an auxiliary that has an advice meaning component to it," says Curzan.

This "grammaticalization" of content words into grammatical constructions is fairly common in today's English.

"We hear this happening with 'hafta,' which is replacing 'must.' Some people say 'suposta,' as in 'I'm suposta do that,' Curzan says.

Guess if you wanna change the language, all you hafta do is popularize new phrases or slang. Maybe one day there won't be any more rules left!

Why Do Things Cost "An Arm And A Leg"?

Unfortunately the origins of this idiom aren't super clear. What we do know is that people say an object will "cost an arm and a leg" to imply it's very expensive, and that the phrase likely originated in America around the 1930's, and started being used in print in the 1950s.

Other than that, here are some guesses as to its origin:

1. Painters would base their portrait-prices on how many limbs needed to be painted, and would charge extra for arms and legs.

2. Many soldiers who fought in World War I lost limbs, making life extremely difficult (and therefore costly).

3. Early 20th-century factories were very dangerous, but the jobs were worth it, even if a worker lost a leg or an arm in the process, because the work would make money.

4. Some gruesome forms of capital punishment were used for a period of history, where someone by law could get their arm cut off for stealing, have their legs crushed, etc. So the criminal act could literally cost a person a limb.

5. It's an extension of the phrase "to give one's right arm for". Since that's usually the dominant stronger arm, if the speaker is willing to sacrifice it, the object in question must be very valuable.

6. It came from the phrase "if it costs a leg!" used by desperadoes seeking revenge or criminals involved in illegal activity. It would be worth it for them to do these acts even if it "cost them a leg" along the way.

7. It came from the army phrase "to chance one's arm", used to describe a risky situation that could come with great reward. In this scenario, the "arm" the soldier would lose upon failing would be a rank, and thus a stripe from his arm's sleeve.

Anything I missed?

[source 1, source 2, source 3, picture]

What Are The "Dog Days"?

Straight from Reader's Digest:

A time of celebration for sure, the winter solstice may also leave you longing for those "dog days" of summer -- the period between early July and early September when Sirius, aka the Dog Star, rises and falls with the sun (and temperatures follow suit). The term dies caniculares ("dog days") was coined in the 1500s.

Now when I look outside on a morning snowstorm and yearn for the dog days of summer, I'll actually know what I'm wishing for!

(And, as a bonus, I'll know what "Sirius" is; not only the Dog Star, but also the brightest in the night sky!)

Shine on, you old dog.

[photo via wikipedia]

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Ever wonder where that common casino phrase came from?

According to the Detroit Free Press:

"Winner winner chicken dinner" is occasionally yelled out on the casino floor to suggest a positive gambling result. Years ago, every casino in Las Vegas had a three-piece chicken dinner for $1.79. Your typical wager back then was $2, so if you won your bet, you had enough for a chicken dinner.

:)

Laverne & Shirley Theme Song Meaning

Classic!

Those of us who watched television or reruns in the 1970s, 80s, or 90s probably are all familiar with the "Laverne & Shirley" show's theme song:

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!

Schlemiel! Schlemazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!

We're gonna do it!

But what on earth does it mean?

Maybe the definitions will help:

Schlemiel: n, an unlucky burglar; chump; clumsy person (Yiddish)

Schlemazel: n, a very unlucky or inept person who fails at everything (Yiddish)

Hasenpfefffer: n, a highly seasoned stew made out of marinated rabbit meat (German)

Maybe the only ones who would try to start a rabbit stew company would be a couple of inept people?

Actually, the first two lines of the theme song are said to be from a Yiddish-American children's hopscotch chant. As we know from our childhood playground chants (One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, et al.), sometimes they are just nonsense. This one in particular, though, is reported to be one that Penny Marshall (who played Laverne) used to chant on her walk to school as a kid.

That's my best answer. :) At the very least we learned what the meaning of the words are!

(via m-w.com, thefreedictionary.com, and reference.com)

A Salty History!

This awesome paragraph about salt comes to us straight from February 2010's issue of Reader's Digest:

In the days before the Stop & Shop spice aisle, food was pretty lackluster, and SALT was so prized that people bartered with it. Roman soldiers were even paid their wages in salt -- hence the word salary and the phrase worth one's salt. Salt, of course, makes it easier to swallow food, so that's why suspicious-sounding stories must be taken with a grain of it.

Reader's Digest is great about packing in the facts! Many thanks!

Bring Home The Bacon

This fun fact I learned from the game show Jeopardy! yesterday. :)

Final Jeopardy!

Category: Food Traditions

Answer: Since the 1100's Dunmow, England, has rewarded newlyweds who go a year and a day without arguing by letting them "bring home" this.

Question: What is the bacon?

Hence the origin of the phrase "bring home the bacon". The phrase has seemed to evolve into meaning "bring home the family income", although the origins imply that it was more about getting rewarded for a peaceful household.

Side note: If you're a Jeopardy! fan, click here to go to an amazing archive of the answers and questions!

There'd Be No Need For Tinkers

Have you ever heard the phrase:

"If 'if's and 'and's were pots and pans, there'd be no need for tinkers!" ?

Typically this would be a response to someone making excuses for themselves, as in "Sure, I was late, but IF all the traffic lights were green AND IF mom didn't call right as I was leaving AND...". Or it can be directed at dreamers, who are always wondering "what if" this and "what if" that?

A lot of people these days (myself included) hear this phrase and think, "Well, that doesn't make sense." That is, it doesn't until you learn that a "tinker" is an old-school term (14th century) for a mender of kitchen utensils, including pots and pans. :)

The original proverb goes something like this:

"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. If turnips were swords, i'd wear one by my side. If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd be no need for tinkers' hands."

(source)

Kick A** And Take Names

"I am going to kick ass and take names!"

You may have heard that phrase when someone is extremely confident that they are going to get someone else to do something. Where did it come from?

I actually found the answer from a Word Reference message board. I know forums aren't super reliable for factual information, but this one (from firefoxbrand) seems legit.

It's a phrase used by the Navy's military police, the Shore Patrol. It's the Shore Patrol's job to control the behavior and crimes of the Naval personnel when the Fleet is in town.

When a sailor causes trouble of some kind (like gets in a fist fight, for example), sometimes the Shore Patrol will deal with it quietly. However, in cases where the sailor doesn't stop their defiance, the Shore Patrol will write up the infraction and it will go on the sailor's permanent record. This is a much bigger deal, as the sailor could be discharged as a result.

So, as I understand it, "kicking ass and taking names" means that the Shore Patrol not only "took care of" the crime, but "wrote up" the offense, too.

Who Are The Herald Angels?

This week I've dedicated to Christmas-themed tidbits!

Most of us have heard the song "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!" (written in 1739). But have you ever wondered who these "herald angels" are? Is it just as simple as "the angels who herald", meaning "the angels who proclaim news"?

Well, yes. :) Huh, that's pretty anticlimactic, isn't it.

I suppose the only interesting thing I can say about this is that "herald" is not an adjective (as defined by Merriam-Webster at least!), so the phrase is difficult to justify grammatically. "Herald" is either a verb or a noun, so the song either says "Hark! The One That Conveys News Angels Sing!" or "Hark! The Give Notice Of Angels Sing!"

But songs break those kinds of rules all the time. And it's still one of my favorite Christmas songs regardless!

That's all I got. I'll see what else I can dig up this week!

The Buck Stops Here!

Did you know that the "buck" in the phrases "pass the buck" and "the buck stops here" didn't start as a reference to money or deer?

In the late 1800s in America, people used a "buck knife" (with a handle made of an buck antler) as a dealer marker while playing poker. So the "buck" was literally passed to the next person responsible for dealing. And the "buck stopped" at the dealer.

Some think that this is where "buck" became a synonym for a dollar, considering that people eventually began using silver dollars as dealer markers. So the "buck" became the silver dollar, and hence the nickname.