That that and other problems

[David Casseres]

Chris Stolz sez

>Pynchon's narrator's use of "that" and "this here" is not only midwestern,
>it's historically Germanic-- German and other post-anglo-saxon languages use
>demonstratives in place of simpler articles a lot of the time.  Lots of
>these folk settled late 19th C in the midwest (producing among other things
>the accents of _Fargo_)
>When Pynchon's narrator says "That Roosevelt made a big difference with that
>New deal of his," this is a transposition of how one would say this in
>German:  "Dieser Roosevelt hat mit diesem `New Deal' viel geaendert"
>(roughly) where it is OK to use "dies" (this) instead of no article or 
>"the"   

Excellent point, and thanks.  But before anyone wastes their time looking 
for that Roosevelt remark in Pynchon's writings, let me say that it isn't 
there -- I just made it up as an illustration.


Cheers,
David