Morrison: Way over on the other side
Marius Hancu
"All of it's"
and
"Some of it's"
are dialect, isn't it?
Also, does
"Way over on the other side"
mean
"Farther away/In the distance over on the other side?"
---
[The Macon Death family drives around]
"On the lake? What's out there? There's nothing out there, nobody."
"There's a beach community out there, Lena. Your father wants to look
at it." [...]
"What for? Those are white people's houses," said Lena.
"All of it's not white people houses. Some of it's nothing. Just land.
Way over on the other side. It could be a nice summer place for
colored people. Beach houses."
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon, p. 33
---
--
Thanks.
Marius Hancu
tony cooper
It's not really dialect if you are thinking that it is the dialect of
African-Americans. It's phrasing that might be used by black or white
people alike. "All" or "some" refers to an area, and "it" is the
area.
I might be talking about Orlando and say "All of it is not theme parks
and fast food chain restaurants. Some of it is ordinary residential
neighborhoods.", and I'm neither black nor poor nor poorly educated.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
Cheryl
I don't think that's actually dialect, although maybe someone familiar
with southern dialects could correct me. It just means "All/Some of it
is..." "Is her dress all black?"
"No, some of it's red. She's got these roses sewn to it."
"Are you sure all the food is for us?"
"Yes, all of it's for us. Mom told me we can eat anything we want."
"Way over" could mean either "farther" or "in the distance", but I think
it's closer to "in the distance". You might say "Newtown is farther from
us than Oldtown" even if the two places were only a kilometre apart. You
wouldn't say "Newtown is way over there, a whole kilometre away!"
--
Cheryl
Marius Hancu
Right, but I'm focusing here on the contraction to "All of it's." Is
that standard?
Thanks.
Marius Hancu
tony cooper
I'm not sure what you mean by "standard". We don't have standards in
conversational English. We see/hear glaring errors in conversational
English, but this is more a matter of individual convention. Some
people would say "All of it is not theme parks..." and some people
would say "All of it's not theme parks". A listener who would object
to the contraction used this way in formal writing would not find it
inappropriate in conversational English.
You are reading a novel, and a novel that contains conversational
passages. Morrison might not use the contraction in a descriptive
passage, but might feel that the use is perfectly ordinary in
conversational English. It's not an African-American dialectal thing.
Donna Richoux
> Right, but I'm focusing here on the contraction to "All of it's." Is
> that standard?
Think of "The worst of it's over." "Most of it's gone." "Half of it's
still there."
It's almost as if we put hyphens to construct a noun phrase:
worst-of-it. Most-of-it. Half-of-it.
--
Best - Donna Richoux
Glenn Knickerbocker
> Right, but I'm focusing here on the contraction to "All of it's." Is
> that standard?
Perfectly. "Is" can be contracted in just about any context where it's
not emphasized--and usually is. The only place that comes to mind where
it's rare to contract it is in a verb compound--and even then it's not
so rare in speech. "If it occurs in a compound and's not emphasized"
would probably never be written, but is unremarkable in speech. After
the first of a pair of coordinating conjunctions would probably be a
little weird, though: "if it either's emphasized or occurs in a
compound." And of course it's less commonly contracted following
another "s" or "z" sound.
What's not entirely standard is modifying a verb whose subject is "all"
with "not." Careful speakers usually resolve the ambiguity by saying
either "not all" or "none" instead.
�R
Glenn Knickerbocker
> the first of a pair of coordinating conjunctions
Oops! Correlative, of course.
�R
Glenn Knickerbocker
> not emphasized--and usually is. The only place that comes to mind where
> it's rare to contract it is in a verb compound--and even then it's not
> so rare in speech. "If it occurs in a compound and's not emphasized"
> would probably never be written, but is unremarkable in speech.
I guess I meant "following a conjunction," since "if it's not emphasized
and occurs in a compound" is perfectly normal. But, actually, the place
that would be weirder than after a conjunction is in the middle of a
list: "if it comes second, 's not emphasized, and's in a list." Not
impossible, but a little odd.
�R
Marius Hancu
> > Right, but I'm focusing here on the contraction to "All of it's." Is
> > that standard?
>
> Perfectly.
OK.
> What's not entirely standard is modifying a verb whose subject is "all"
> with "not." Careful speakers usually resolve the ambiguity by saying
> either "not all" or "none" instead.
Good point. I didn't see this one.
Thank you.
Marius Hancu