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You know what I can't get over? I can't get over the fact that the people who say "The car needs washed" or "The country needs healed" are almost universally unaware that they're using a very distinct regionalism.
When New Yorkers stand on line, we know the rest of you stand in lines, and when people from Texas say "y'all" they know that's a Southernism, and when you show people the soda/pop map they smile and nod sagely - but when you tell people that nobody else in the US says "needs fixed" they go "Are you sure? How else would you say it? You can't be serious!"
And you know, when people are aware that they're using a dialectical term or construction, they can either embrace it or they can avoid it, depending on the person and the context and the prestige of their dialect - but man, people with "needs done" just get stuck on "Are you positive nobody else says this?" (Yeah, man, I'm positive.)
I have these conversations over the internet, so obviously they have that, and I presume these people all have access to television and books and so on, and they read and many of them are college educated - and yet, somehow, they're always surprised at this revelation.
Honestly, it's charming. I have no idea how nobody with this feature is aware of it until explicitly told, but I think it's great. (And in the process of saying this, inevitably two or three or more commenters end up popping up to go "Wait, wait, are you really sure?" Every time this subject comes up on any corner of the internet - and since it IS so unusual to those of us without that construction, using it pretty much guarantees somebody is going to comment on it - they just fall all over themselves to check if the rest of us are just pulling their collective legs. Which we aren't.)
When New Yorkers stand on line, we know the rest of you stand in lines, and when people from Texas say "y'all" they know that's a Southernism, and when you show people the soda/pop map they smile and nod sagely - but when you tell people that nobody else in the US says "needs fixed" they go "Are you sure? How else would you say it? You can't be serious!"
And you know, when people are aware that they're using a dialectical term or construction, they can either embrace it or they can avoid it, depending on the person and the context and the prestige of their dialect - but man, people with "needs done" just get stuck on "Are you positive nobody else says this?" (Yeah, man, I'm positive.)
I have these conversations over the internet, so obviously they have that, and I presume these people all have access to television and books and so on, and they read and many of them are college educated - and yet, somehow, they're always surprised at this revelation.
Honestly, it's charming. I have no idea how nobody with this feature is aware of it until explicitly told, but I think it's great. (And in the process of saying this, inevitably two or three or more commenters end up popping up to go "Wait, wait, are you really sure?" Every time this subject comes up on any corner of the internet - and since it IS so unusual to those of us without that construction, using it pretty much guarantees somebody is going to comment on it - they just fall all over themselves to check if the rest of us are just pulling their collective legs. Which we aren't.)
