and also, with reference to a specific antecedent, when particular emphasis
is drawn to the item in question.
I’ve had the “wireless there, this here “here, for “good many years.
One of these here “crocks, something like that there “there.
In all other cases, the simple forms are used.
“This was coming “this way.
Then he did meet with “this.
That’s “one “bad “job, “that was.
/ðat/ is used particularly frequently in two phrases, ‘likes of that
and ‘and that’.
He doed a bit of “farmering and likes of “that.
I got a “jumper and that home “now.
The last question is one of the most interesting. Is there really only
one form /ðej/ functioning as a plural pronoun? At first sight, this would
seem improbable, given that there is a plural adjective form /ðejz/ and
that the 'this':'that' opposition is maintained elsewhere in the system.
However, all attempts to elicit such a form failed, and there is at least
one spontaneous utterance where, if a form /ðejz/ did exist as a pronoun,
it might be expected to appear:
There’s “thousands of acres out there would grow it better than they
in “here grow it.
Taking all these factors together, we tentatively suggest that the
opposition ‘this’:’that’ is neutralized in this position, even though this
seems rather unlikely, given the adjectival system.
But there is another point. It is in fact difficult to identify
occurrences of /ðej/ as demonstratives with any certainty, because the form
is identical with that of the personal pronoun /ðej/ (Standard English
‘they’ or ‘them’).
We may observe at this point that in the dialect, the third plural
personal pronoun forms are /ðej/ and /?m/. The first form is used in all
stressed positions and as unstressed subject except in inverted Q-forms;
the second is used as the unstressed non-subject, and as the unstressed
subject in inverted Q-forms. Thus we find:
/ðej/
“I had to show the pony but “they winned the cups.
I could chuck “they about.
That’s up to “they, they know what they’m a”bout of.
They’d take ‘em back of your “door for half-a-crown.
/?m/
They expect to have a “name to the house, “don’t ‘em?
Where do ‘em get the “tools to?
That was as far as “ever they paid ‘em.
I stayed there “long with ‘em for more than a “year.
When considering /ðej/, we find a series of utterances such as the
following in which a division between personal and demonstrative pronouns
would be largely arbitrary.
I could “throw ‘em. chuck “they about.
“They in “towns, they go to concerts,
Us finished up with “they in ...
They do seven acres a “day, now, with “they.
There is “they that take an “interest in it.
I could cut in so straight (as) some of “they that “never do it.
Although, following the system of Standard English, we have so far
differentiated between /ðej/ as a stressed personal pronoun and /ðej/ as a
demonstrative pronoun, it is clearly more economical, in terms of the
dialectal material, to consider the two functions as coalescing within one
system: STRESSED /ðej/; UNSTRESSED /?m/. This system would operate in all
positions where Standard English would show either a third person plural
personal pronoun, or a plural demonstrative pronoun. Similarly, there is a
dialectal system STRESSED /ðat/ UNSTRESSED /it/ in the third person
singular, where the referent is abstract or non-specific, in that /ðat/
never occurs unstressed nor /it/ stressed. Thus in contrast to the last
example above, we find:
I seed some of ‘em that never walked a “mile in their “lives,
where the form /?m/ is unstressed. (Such unstressed examples are much rarer
than stressed examples in positions where Standard English would show a
demonstrative pronoun simply because ‘those’ is normally stressed in
Standard English.)
We should note finally, however, that this analysis of the material
does not in any way explain the absence of a plural pronoun /ðejz/, any
more than the linking of /ðat/ with /it/ precludes the existence of a
singular demonstrative pronoun /ði:z/. The non-existence of /ðejz/ as a
pronoun seems best considered as an accidental gap in the corpus.” (¹18,
p.20 )
3.6 Verbs.
- In the south-western dialects in the singular and in the plural in
Present Indefinite the ending ‘-s’ or ‘-es’ is used, if the Subject
is expressed as
a noun.
e.g. Boys as wants more mun ask.
The other ehaps works hard.
- In Devonshire ‘-th’ [ð] is added to verbs in the plural in Present
Indefinite.
- The form ‘am’ (’m) of the verb ‘to be’ is used after the personal
pronouns:
e.g. We (wem = we are) (Somersetshire)
you, they
- After the words ‘if’, ‘when’, ‘until’, ‘after’ Future Indefinite
sometimes used.
- The Perfect form in affirmative sentences, in which the Subject is
expressed as a personal pronoun, is usually built without the
auxiliary verb ‘have’:
e.g. We done it.
I seen him.
They been and taken it.
- The negation in the south-western dialects is expressed with the
adding of the negative particle ‘not’ in the form ‘-na’ to the
verb.
e.g. comesna (comes not)
winna (= will not)
sanna (= shall not)
canna (= cannot)
maunna (= must not)
sudna (= should not)
dinna (= do not)
binna (= be not)
haena (= have not)
daurna (= dare not)
- It is typical to the south-western dialects to use too many
nigotiations in the same phrase:
e.g. I yin’t seen nobody nowheres.
I don’t want to have nothing at all to say to you.
I didn’t mean no harm.
Ye’ll better jist nae detain me nae langer.
- The negative and interrogative forms of the modal verbs are built
with the help of the auxiliary verb ‘do’.
e.g. He did not ought to do it.
You do not ought to hear it.
- Some verbs which are regular in the Standard language become
irregular in the south-western dialects:
e.g. dive - dave, help - holp
- Sometimes the ending ‘-ed’ is added to some irregular verbs in the
Past Simple:
e.g. bear - borned, begin - begunned, break - broked, climb - clombed,
dig - dugged, dive - doved, drive - droved, fall - felled, find
-
funded, fly - flewed, give - gaved, grip - grapped, hang -
hunged,
help - holped, hold - helded, know - knewed, rise - rosed, see -
sawed, shake - shooked, shear - shored, sing - sunged, sink -
sunked, spin - spunned, spring - sprunged, steal - stoled,
strive -
stroved, swear - swored, swim - swammed, take - tooked, tear -
tored, wear - wored, weave - woved, write - wroted.
- But some irregular verbs in the Past Simple Tense are used as
regular:
e.g. begin - beginned (Western Som., Dev.)
bite - bited (W. Som.)
blow - blowed (Dev.)
drink - drinked (W. Som.)
drive - drived (Dev.)
fall - falled (W. Som., Dev.)
fight - fighted (W. Som.)
fall - falled (Som., Dev.)
go - gade (Dev.)
grow - growed (W. Som.)
hang - hanged (W. Som.)
lose - losed (W. Som., Dev.)
ring - ringed (W. Som.)
speak - speaked (Som.)
spring - springed (W. Som., Dev.)
- Many verbs form the Past Participle with the help of the ending ‘-n’.
e.g. call - callen
catch - catchen
come - comen
- In some cases in the Past Participle a vowel in the root is
changed, and the suffix is not added.
e.g. catch - [k t?]
hit - [a:t]
lead - [la:d]
- In the south-western dialects intransitive verbs have the ending ‘-
y’ [?].
- In Western Somersetshire before the infinitive in the function of
the adverbial modifier of purpose ‘for’ is used:
e.g. Hast gotten a bit for mend it with? (= Have you got anything to
mend it with?)
3.7 Adverbs.
- In the south-western dialects an adjective is used instead of the
adverb.
e.g. You might easy fall.
- To build the comparative degree ‘far’ is used instead of ‘further’;
‘laster’ instead of ‘more lately’.
- The suparative degree: ‘farest’; ‘lastest’; ‘likerest’; ‘rathest’.
a) The adverbs of place:
abeigh [?b?x] - ‘at some distance’
abune, aboon - ‘above’
ablow - ‘under’
ben, benn - ‘inside’
outbye [utba?] - ‘outside’
aboot - ‘around’
hine, hine awa - ‘far’
ewest - ‘near’
b) The adverbs of the mode of action:
hoo, foo - ‘how’
weel - ‘great’
richt - ‘right’
ither - ‘yet’
sae - ‘so’
c) The adverbs of degree:
much
e.g. How are you today? - Not much, thank you.
‘much’ is also used in the meaning of ‘wonderfully’
Ñòðàíèöû: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
