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I date back to the time when English teachers would teach the parts of speech by having students diagram sentences. Those of you who went through it will remember the little lines connecting, branching off, connecting with what branched off, etc. I've fantasized about going back and saying to one of those know-it-all teachers "Here, diagram THIS." My number one contender at this point is "Is you is or is you ain't my baby?" Does anyone else have any ideas? If so, please send them to gotobarn@sover.net, and I'll send back what accumulates. For what it's worth, I'm a Vermont poet who works as a freelance writer, doint mostly journalism, to make a living.
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I love this! Nothing immediately comes to mind, but thanks for the poser, erlbarna.
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welcome, erl!  it's been a while since I've diagrammed, but I'll see what I can remember...
formerly known as etaoin...
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The *sentence* "is you is or is you aint my baby" is not grammatically correct. Is it surprising that *sentences* that are not grammatically correct cannot be diagrammed? I would guess we could peruse the significations of Koko to find plenty that could not be diagrammed.
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That's a good first step. I don't have access to any sentence diagramming software but … Code:
Is you is
Verb subj adverbial verb
\
or
my baby?
conj
/ dir obj.
is you ain't
verb subj adverbial verb
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You is baby
\is_____ \my
or
You is baby
\ ain't__ \my
Please note that the is-ness and the ain't-ness is an adjectival condition belonging to "you".
Usually, Faldage, you would have caught that.
But the way you acting lately makes me doubt.
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You're right, Milo. I was toying with whether it was a adverbial verb or a verbal adverb and completely missed the fact that it's adjectiving.
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As a non-native speaker of English, not only have I never heard this sentence before, but also I don't understand what it's saying. And yes, it looks quite grammatically wrong to me.
In any case, I view "my baby" here not as a direct object, but as a subject complement. The verb "is" is not an action verb but a stative one. It identifies the subject with a quality or characteristic, but it doesn't impose an action on a primary recipient as action verbs do on their direct objects.
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It's a line from a song - a very old song.
I wonder do we distinquish the state of being grammatically incorrect from that of being ungrammatical.
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Quote:
It's a line from a song - a very old song.
<sigh>
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I was just joking around more than anything with my diagram attempt.
It is an interesting problem though. One way to approach it might be to diagram the same thought in standard grammar: Are you, or are you not, my baby? (Which has a funny courtroom sort of ring to it.) It might be more accurate to translate it as Are you indeed (or truly), or are you not, my sweeheart?
The song lyric is doing three things as far as I can tell that make it deviate from standard grammar:
(1) subject-verb disagreement ("you is")
(2) use of "ain't" for aren't (A-okay in my book)
(3) inserting "is" as an affirmative counterpoint to the negative modifier: "is you is or is you ain't..." You could also say that this "is" is substituting for any of the following: indeed, truly, sincerely, really, seriously or honestly.
So try diagramming "Are you [indeed], or are you not my baby?" However you dealt with the "not" is how you could deal with the bracketed affirmative. Then just translate everything back to the nonstandard grammar of the song lyric. By the time you finish, you may come to the conclusion that the original lyric expresses the thought quite well, and the more formal expressions ain't got nothin' to offer in terms of improvement.
Last edited by Alex Williams; 05/31/06 03:20 PM.
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I got a gal that's always late
Every time we have a date
But I love her
Yes I love her
I'm gonna walk right up to her gate
And see if I can get it straight
Cause I want her
I'm gonna ask her
Is you is or is you ain't my baby?
The way you're actin' lately makes me doubt
Yous is still my baby-baby
Seems my flame in your heart's done gone out
A woman is a creature that has always been strange
Just when you're sure of one
You find she's gone and made a change
Is you is or is you ain't my baby
Maybe baby's found somebody new
Or is my baby still my baby true?
Is you is or is you ain't my baby?
The way you're actin' lately makes me doubt
Yous is still my baby-baby
Seems my flame in your heart's done gone out
A woman is a creature that has always been strange
Just when you're sure of one
You find she's gone and made a change
Is you is or is you ain't my baby
Maybe baby's found somebody new
Or is my baby still my baby true?
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thank you for that blanket obviousizing and liverish chopping, Fr Steve.
-ron o.
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<sigh> Why the sigh, my friend?
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...I would venture a guess that it was elicited by 1994 being called very old.
Eye of the beholder, sez I. These days I don't consider people entitled to call themselves "old" (merely by virtue of the numbers) until the reach 88 or so. Maybe only 87. Though one can certainly be old at a lower age...
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Quote:
...I would venture a guess that it was elicited by 1994 being called very old.
Eye of the beholder, sez I. These days I don't consider people entitled to call themselves "old" (merely by virtue of the numbers) until the reach 88 or so. Maybe only 87. Though one can certainly be old at a lower age...
The song is from 1944, making it 62 years old, which for a person is not VERY old, but for popular music is ancient.
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the sigh, actually a link to the song's lyric, was in response to FF saying it was a very old song and leaving us sort of hanging. but, it turns out to have been a presage of FS's posting of the lyric herein. anyhow, it was just me being.. -joe angstrom 
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I blessed the new house of an 87-year-old woman yesterday and, afterwards, I let slip some remark about feeling old. She quickly corrected me, being very much my senior, and called me "kiddo" to drive home her point. It is about perspective, eh?
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Quote:
I blessed the new house of an 87-year-old woman yesterday and, afterwards, I let slip some remark about feeling old. She quickly corrected me, being very much my senior, and called me "kiddo" to drive home her point. It is about perspective, eh?
Maybe. But it is also about consideration of those to whom you are speaking.
And maybe it is none of my business but why would a 87-year-old woman want to move to a new house? Visit her often, Father Steve, I fear that she won't be very happy there, old folk need familiar surroundings.
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familiar is relative.
and change is not bad--what is hard to deal with (at any age) is change forced upon us.
No one minds quitting a job, when they have a better one lined up.
No one relished being fired -unexpectedly.
chosing to move is a good thing--and can be envigerating.
being forced to relocate, (because you can't keep up the old place, or because its been destroyed, (fire, flood, whatever))is devestating.
most of us like change..when we have some control over the change.
no one wants to wear the same clothes everyday. or eat the same food. what we want is choice. what we dislike is imposed (choiceless) change.
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Quote:
familiar is relative.
Quite, Helen, everything is relative. (except my Uncle Kenny who is a relative but nothing about Kenny is what you might describe as familiar. Strange, yes, he once backed a Ford pick-up truck almost twenty-five miles from Bessemer to Birmingham to win a five dollar bet.)
But by age eighty and above, you, me, and everyone, will have changed about as much as we felt was interesting and we will then only want to wait out our remaining time on this Earth in a pleasant and familiar setting.
My Grandmother Grider told me so back in 1968.
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And maybe it is none of my business but why would a 87-year-old woman want to move to a new house? Visit her often, Father Steve, I fear that she won't be very happy there, old folk need familiar surroundings.
This remarkable lady has been living on her own in the Greater Seattle area while her daughter and son-in-law live on the beach on the Olympic Peninsula. It was her wish and their wish to reduce the distance (two floating bridges, one half-hour ferry ride and about fifty miles of driving) between them. So they built her a dream house, right next to theirs, so she has her privacy but can walk twenty yards and be in their home. Her grandkids also have a summer home on the property which will, in many years, become their retirement home. They are up there all the time, building some addition on it, which puts them close to grandma.
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Quote:
This remarkable lady has been living on her own in the Greater Seattle area while her daughter and son-in-law live on the beach on the Olympic Peninsula. It was her wish and their wish to reduce the distance (two floating bridges, one half-hour ferry ride and about fifty miles of driving) between them. So they built her a dream house, right next to theirs, so she has her privacy but can walk twenty yards and be in their home. Her grandkids also have a summer home on the property which will, in many years, become their retirement home. They are up there all the time, building some addition on it, which puts them close to grandma.
Maybeso, Father Steve, but what young folks want is not always what old folks want, but most old folks like to please their children.
Maybe your old folks in Seattle are different. I'll check them out when I spend eight days in Seattle this August ensconced in Bellingham at the Western Washington University campus.
Now, if you please, Father Steve, a quick question about border crossings...
Do you think that I will have any problen bopping in and out of Canada armed with only an Alabama driver's license and my birth certificate?
I would appreciate your advice.
Last edited by themilum; 07/04/06 01:10 PM.
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RE: But by age eighty and above, you, me, and everyone, will have changed about as much as we felt was interesting and we will then only want to wait out our remaining time on this Earth in a pleasant and familiar setting.
-------------------------------------------------------
Good god, i hope not!
i want to be interesting, and learning new things, and changing right up to the day i die.
my daughter tells me i am too old to wear my hair long, and i should get it cut. well, i am not too old for long hair, nor am i too old to do anything.
i just bought a new stereo set. it plays CD (i have several hundred) and it plays MP3 files.
to date i have 0 MP3 files. but i already have cute little jump drive, (and i let my daughter share some of her music files with me, via the jump drive) and my computer can burn cd filled with mp3 files, and i suspect in a short while, i'll have several hundred mp3 files to go along with my CD.
i don't have all the latest technology (alas, i can't afford it!) but i am not going to be a source of antiques when i die (well that not quite true, i have a collection of antiques, from relatives who got locked into an age,and stopped changing!)
me, i plan to rip all my cd's, change them into mp3 files, and eventually, i will have a stereo that plays MP3 files and X (what ever the next new technology is)
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Do you think that I will have any problen bopping in and out of Canada armed with only an Alabama driver's license and my birth certificate?According to this page on the US State Department's website, "The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requires that by January 1, 2008, travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada have a passport or other secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States." It doesn't really say what "other secure, accepted documents" are (probably UPC on your right arm), but then da gummint has always had a fuzzy semantics problem. Also, I guess the old rules hold for pre-01/01/08 crossings (I always used my passport when entering Canada or Mexico) into the Evil Commonwealth of Canadia, a well-known Commanist dictatorship. (Whyever would you want to leave Alabama, let alone the US of A? Da gummint will flag all your phone calls and internet postings extra special from now on.) You might want to peruse the act itself for more clues. (Be careful, reading this document may win you a vacation in Kazakhstan or Romania.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
I want to be interesting, and learning new things, and changing, right up to the day I die...
Hear, hear! (And where's that jumping-up-and-down-clapping-e when you want it?)
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my newest catch phrase--is
that is so last century! --i use it when someone says mail (and start to give me a street address)
or when they offer to share photo's, (and bring out a pile of snap shots, that i have to look at, with them looking over my shoulder, expaining every shot) or when they talk about going down to 34th street to the airline ticket office.
It's so last century!
me, i am living in the 21st century, and abandoning last century practices as fast as i can.
i've had digital images for over 10 years (and a digital camera for 5). I have an on-line photogallery, and while i do occationally print an image, i ususally just share images electronicly.
sure, i knit. but knitting is not totally anachronisitic.
it can be. there are knitters who haven't looked at or imagined anything new in eons. but there are wonderful new things in knitting. --take socks.. for 500 years, they were knit, one at time, on sets of double pointed needles.
i knit mine, 2 at time, on 2 circular needles. the socks look the same, but the process is new.
sure, hand knitting is old fashioned, but trust me, once you feel customed sized hand knit socks!! (oh, did i mention, i knit in wool, but not old fashioned wool. i use 'superwash' -a treated wool that can be machine washed and dried)
my hand knit wool sock might seem old fashioned, but they are nothing like the socks your grandmother knit.
mine are custome made luxure items!
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My mother's 81st birthday present is a tandem paraglide off one of the local mountains. Her request and I agreed to pay for it. Personally I can't imagine jumping of a mountain. Ooops pardon me, launching off a mountain.
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Quote:
"The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requires that by January 1, 2008, travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada have a passport or other secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States."
It doesn't really say what "other secure, accepted documents" are (probably UPC on your right arm), but then da gummint has always had a fuzzy semantics problem. Also, I guess the old rules hold for pre-01/01/08 crossings (I always used my passport when entering Canada or Mexico) into the Evil Commonwealth of Canadia, a well-known Commanist dictatorship. (Whyever would you want to leave Alabama, let alone the US of A? Da gummint will flag all your phone calls and internet postings extra special from now on.)
Thanks zmjezhd, I guess the old "fuzzy" rules will stand this summer when I visit socialist Canada.
And who said I wanted to leave Alabama? What I want is to share my knowledge about caves and the World in general with cavers from all of the American states; even Vermont and San Fransisco.
Thanks, pal. 
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Quote:
Quote:
I want to be interesting, and learning new things, and changing, right up to the day I die...
Hear, hear! (And where's that jumping-up-and-down-clapping-e when you want it?)
Did you two ever read the short story by Ray Bradbury entitled (I think) "The Last Day of Earth"?
Given only a 24 hours notice that an errant giant astroid was going to collide with Earth with such force as to evaporate all oceans and end all life on the planet, what would you do that last day?
Take up hang gliding? Join a book-of-the-month club?
No, what you would do is put out the dog and let in the cat and lock the door and then go to bed early that last night.
Change for change's sake is sport for developing children.
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IMPOSED change (like getting fired) having an asteroid hit, is not a change one choses!
but chosing to change, chosing to do new thing, to learn new things, to read new idea, to try new ways of doing things because you can--that is fun.
chosing to travel is different than being evicted from your home. one is a pleasure, the other a sorrow.
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Dear Milum ~
A photo driver's license and a copy of one's birth certificate are all that is required at the moment. I use a passport, instead, anyway, as it is less hassle than carrying my silly-ass birth certificate around with me.
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Padre
were you a breech birth then?
("silly-ass birth certificate")
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Quote:
Dear Milum ~
A photo driver's license and a copy of one's birth certificate are all that is required at the moment. I use a passport, instead, anyway, as it is less hassle than carrying my silly-ass birth certificate around with me.
Thanks Padre, I think I'll opt for the birth certificate and the drivers license scam. Down here in Aladamnbama we are prudes and don't put buttprints on our certificates of birth, instead we still use old fashion handprints and footprints for identification.
And hey, Padre, I'll bet that your birth certificate buttprint isn't silly at all, I'll bet if truth be known your buttprint is quite cute.
Thanks again. 
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I'll bet if truth be known your buttprint is quite cute
Only my proctologist knows for sure.
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My all time favorite is in the 1940 edition of the "Britinnica". Under the heading Apache, after explaining who these Native
Americans are, the writer concudes with this one sentence paragraph describing this group known as Apaches: "In Paris, the name Apache is given to a class of criminals to describe whom in America the name thug was borrowed from India." !!!! Anyone my age or older would know who he is talking about, but diagamming would be a challenge, to say the least.
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Quote:
"In Paris, the name Apache is given to a class of criminals to describe whom in America the name thug was borrowed from India." !!!! Anyone my age or older would know who he is talking about, but diagamming would be a challenge, to say the least.
Part of the challenge stems from the fact that there is something missing from the sentence. Maybe:
"In Paris, the name Apache is given to a class of criminals to describe those for whom in America the name thug was borrowed from India."
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