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”:
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.
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!