Interestin’ readin’
When I was at MIIS, a friend of mine taking a linguistics class asked how often I replace “going to” with “gonna,” and I said always. But then he brought up the difference between “I’m going to drive to the store” and “I’m going to the store” and taught me something that of course I knew instinctively: “gonna” can only replace “going to” + verb. When “going to” is followed by a noun, you can’t say “gonna” – you can only abbreviate it to “goin’ to” (which I do). Stuff like this fascinates me.
I’m sharing this now because I just read a pretty good article comparing Obama’s and McCain’s use of “g dropping”:
2 comments
Permalink1
I wonder if it is possible to
elevate the term ‘going to’ to a full verb as in:
“Beging going to this instant!”
or
maybe “She was going to loyally and sensibly”.
Finally, perhaps: “This going to without end,
this day, this hour, like a brand new word”.
What say you.
Permalink2
That’s great. I am linguist
too, and enjoy these sorts of “discoveries” of how we can/can’t use words. So interesting! By
the way, I want to thank you for your great French learning websites. I am studying French in
France now, and find all your articles SO helpful in supplementing my learning!