So cycling is political act??

[owlice]

Owlie is correct.

Jessmarimba, the "needs upholstered" in a previous post was what made me think this. This is an old construction in English which is retained in certain parts of the US through Scots-influenced language (as in, coming from the Scots language, a Germanic language from the Angles, spoken in lowland Scotland and Northern Ireland).

People grow up speaking generally like their peers, not their parents, though some constructions seem to be ... hmmm, how to express this... not exempt from this, but carried over further than other things, might be a good way to put it.

It may be common throughout Ohio; might want to listen carefully to your mom to see whether she uses the same construction. It is common in certain areas in and around the Appalachian Mountains (which is why I specified eastern Ohio); any time I hear this construction in Maryland, I want to, and sometimes do, ask if the speaker/speaker's parents are from West Virginia. (Answers so far has always been yes.)

So other areas with which I associate this construction -- there may be other areas, this is just where I've heard it/heard it from people from these areas -- are eastern Tennessee and Kentucky and throughout Pennsylvania, though I've heard it more in western PA/from people from western PA than in other areas of PA. Western Maryland is also part of the general area in which this construction should be heard, but oddly enough, I don't hear it there (unless the speaker/speaker's parents are from WVa).

It's funny -- interesting funny, not ha-ha funny -- that this construction persists in English even now. I always like hearing/reading it; our language is richly influenced by so many others, I feel for those who have to learn it as a second language!

Thanks for indulging me!

Everyone else, sorry for the hijack; I'll behave now!

[jessmarimba]

That's funny - I never noticed that the phrasing there wasn't standard! Now that I think about it, I'd guess it's a variation on the more extreme "wants verb-ing" (as in, "that dress wants washing" ), which I'd pick up immediately as Appalachian.

I do say "Ya's" instead of y'all on occasion, and I know that's a midwest thing from Mom.

I'm from Richmond, VA - and my dad's family has lived there or slightly east of there since the 1650s. So I'd imagine that I either picked that up living in middle Tennessee in college or from reading a lot.

[jessmarimba]

Just wanted to come back and say that my mom is laughing at me now.

She just asked, "So if we're looking at one chair with a bad paint job and one with old fabric, what would you say," and I answered with "That one needs painted and that one needs reupholstered"

She replies "I guess we can only buy new chairs from now on."

(I'll stop hijacking now too!)

[owlice]

Just wanted to come back and say that my mom is laughing at me now.

She just asked, "So if we're looking at one chair with a bad paint job and one with old fabric, what would you say," and I answered with "That one needs painted and that one needs reupholstered"

She replies "I guess we can only buy new chairs from now on."

(I'll stop hijacking now too!)

Oh, just saw this!! lol!! So your mom doesn't use that construction?

[jessmarimba]

She implied that it was acceptable in grammar school, but that she hadn't thought about it in years. Dad is definitely very proper about his grammar, too.

It's most likely from waiting tables in ruralish TN, to try and sound more like the customers. Mimicry for better tips! But I did study Russian for awhile and they don't really have a verb "to be" so you couldn't say something like "that chair needs to be reupholstered" (not that I know the Russian verb for reupholster).

[lph]

(not that I know the Russian verb for reupholster).

jessmarimba, you disappoint me

[owlice]

jessmarimba, well, heck, Virginia is definitely included in the Appalachian states! I don't usually hear that construction from Virginians, but that could be because I hear people from northern Virginia about a bazillion times more than people in other areas of Virginia (and most of them are from someplace else, anyway). Or not. I'd expect to hear that construction more in the southwestern part of VA than in Richmond; Tennessee might have done it to you, too, but listen for it in your mother's speech. I'd be curious as to whether she uses it. If you hadn't noticed that phrasing before, you'd have probably noticed it in college (or in your reading), so I think it likely you grew up hearing it. Heck, listen for it in your dad's speech, too; with his family's long history in Virginia... well, I'm wondering where those folks came from and whether there were Scots speakers in the mix.

And the construction you're after for the dress is "that dress wants washed."

[marni]

my own regionalisms are an inability to say a sentence without an automatic "ya know" (SoCal in the 1950 and later) and an acquired use of "yu'ns for you all which is a north carolina coastal useage but very similar to my second languages (dutch) useage of "jullie" for you as a group (third person plural.)

marni

[emily_in_nc]

Jessmarimba, the "needs upholstered" in a previous post was what made me think this. This is an old construction in English which is retained in certain parts of the US through Scots-influenced language (as in, coming from the Scots language, a Germanic language from the Angles, spoken in lowland Scotland and Northern Ireland).

My in-laws talk like this -- they have lived in Ohio all their lives and are of Swedish and German descent. My DH, being from Ohio as well (though he's lived many other places since college) still says things like that. It sounds odd to me, being a southern gal!

[jessmarimba]

I should've thrown you guys for a loop and said that the chair needs reupholstered wicked soon.

(Oh, and just thought I'd throw in - I believe mom's family is of eastern European descent, in or near a region that was part of what was Czechoslovakia. She was living in Ohio when she met my dad but was born in Georgia)