Middlesex

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Perhaps perverse, but it seems like Middlesex would be an excellent novel in which to study the [i]middle voice[i].

On a first reading, I intend to pull all the instances of "get" that I don't miss. Afterwards, though, it's clear that Book I has a very interesting number of "pathetic fallacies" or "paysage d'état d'âme", doors, eyes, fires, all with a sense of sentient purpose !


Occurences of get

Finite human subject

Narrative

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 11 | We may get another boy
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 11 | Now my mother gets up from the so-called love seat.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 11 | Now my father gets up to make his rounds, turning out lights, locking doors.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 13 | Now, in the church basement, she told Chapter Eleven to run off and play with the other children while she got a cup of coffee to restore herself.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 14 | He was trying to fill a coffee cup, but once he got the tap open he couldn't get it closed.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 17 | Awakened by my parents rushing off to the hospital, he'd gotten out of bed and gone downstairs to make himself a cup of coffee.


  • Book I § Matchmaking § 19 | (Her memoirs, which end shortly before her suicide, make unsatisfactory reading, and it was after finishing them years ago that I first got the idea to write my own.)
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 20 | I'm the final clause in a periodic sentence, and that sentence begins a long time ago, in another language, and you have to read it from the beginning to get to the end, which is my arrival.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 20 | She gets really fat again. (narrator rewinds the tape through pregnancy)
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 24 | At present, black silk ribbons were tied around the braids, too, making them even more imposing, if you got to see them, which few people did.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 30 | He knew that he was supposed to shout, to act offended, to pretend to take his business elsewhere. But he had gotten such a late start; the closing bell was about to sound.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 31 | He let himself get cajoled into playing, just one, then lost and had to go double or nothing.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 32-3 | Hung over and feverish, Lefty told himself that his sister was right: it was time for him to get married.
    • tough-structure
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 33 | He would have children and stop going down to Bursa and little by little he's change; he'd get older; everything he felt now would fade into memory and then into nothing.
    • future in the past, complement includes comparative head -er.


  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 43 | Afraid to get out of bed, he sent the barber away, forgetting his morning shave.
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 | When you got away from the quay you could almost forget that there was a crisis on.
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 | When all his money was gone, Lefty got up and said with disgusted anger, "Can I leave now?"


  • Book I § The Silk Road § 68 | We Greeks get married in circles, to impress upon ourselves the essential matrimonial facts: that to be happy you have to find variety in repetition, that to go forward you have to come back where you began.
  • Book I § The Silk Road § 71-2 | Instead of getting to know each other, [...] Desdemona and Lefty tried to defamiliarize themselves with one another.
  • Book I § The Silk Road § 74 | Literate, married to only one person (albeit a sibling), democratically inclined, mentally stable, and authoritatively deloused, my grandparents saw no reason why they would have trouble getting through.
  • Book I § The Silk Road § 76 | "Maybe I could get you a blanket?"
  • Book I § The Silk Road § 76 | "You won't get the chance", said the captain and to prove his point, pulled the lifeboat's tarp completely away.


  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 82 | one of [the five wigs Sophie Sasson made from Desdemona's cut hair] was later bought by Betty Ford, post White House and rehab, so that we got to see it on television once, during Richard Nixon's funeral, my grandmother's hair, sitting on the ex-President's wife's head.
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 83 | But just imagine it in those days! Grand Trunk! Telephones in a hundred shipping offices ringing away, still a relatively new sound; and merchandise being sent east and west; passengers arriving and departing, having coffee in the Palm Court or getting their shoes shined, the wing tips of banking, the cap toes of parts supply, the saddle shoes of rum-running.
    • excellent paragraph for studying voice/-ing/-ed interaction with various lexemes (ring, have, get, arrive, depart) of different Aktionsart. /getting N Ved/  :hm:
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 83 | A secret kept, in other words, only by the loosest definition, so that now -- as I get ready to leak the information myself -- I feel only a slight twinge of filial guilt.
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 94 | [...] Lefty let himself be taken along with the flow of the next shift, [.#.] men hurrying last cigarettes or getting in final words -- because as they approached the factory they'd begun to speak again, not because they had anything to say but because beyond those doors language wasn't allowed.
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 102 | And so we come to the weeks leading up to the graduation pageant. To Desdemona sewing [...]. To Lefty getting off work one Friday evening and crossing over Miller Road to be paid from the armored truck.


  • Book II § Minotaurs § 106 | A word on my shame. I don't condone it. I'm trying my best to __ get __ over it
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 108 | When the curtain rose at the Family Theater, my relatives expected to get the whole story.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 111 | He gets out of the car.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 111 | The hum is getting louder now.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 113 | "As soon as they voted Prohibition, I went to the library and looked at a map." he said, explaining how he'd gotten into the business.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 114 | At thirty weeks her skin thins, and her hair gets thicker.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 117 | She thought back to the night she'd gotten pregnant and tried to reconstruct events.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 118 | It rolled over in bed when he got home before sunrise[.]


  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 127 | Lefty had rented a limousine for the day [... .] When he got in ____ himself, he gave a small wave to the man who had been chosen to stay behind [... .]
    • interesting reciprocal pronoun, can also split the kernel "get in" showing difficulty / impediment, rather than turn-taking.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 129 | People crowded around trying to get a look at her new baby.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 133 | Practically speaking, this meant Desdemona got them out of bed in the morning, [... .]
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 139 | I wouldn't have to get a job.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 139 | She walked by a barbershop where men were getting their hair straightened[.]
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 146 | Leave them there, climbing, while I explain what my grandmother had gotten herself into.


  • Book II § Tricknology § 151 | She got used to using the back door and to not speaking.
    • note that this (optional) reanalysis has taken place phonetically, but not grammatically (note the presence of -ing on the verbal base. The second to can likewise be reduced in everyday speech.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 155 | Ruby James was thinking about how handsome John 2X had looked that morning, and wondered if they would get married someday.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 155 | Darlene Wood was beginning to get miffed because...
  • Book II § Tricknology § 155 | all the brothers had gotten rid of their slave names ...
  • Book II § Tricknology § 155 | but Minister Fard hadn't gotten around to the girls yet, so here she was, still Darlene Wood.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 155 | She got up from the floor.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 157 | Milton got good marks from school.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 157 | Lefty hurried outside and gets into the backseat.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 158 | As they [...] he [talks about] photography, how Nicéphore Niepce invented it, and how Daguerre got all the credit.
    • compare: and that's what got Daugerre all the credit.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 158 | He describes [...] an exposure so long that none of the [...] pedestrians showed up except for a lone figure who had stopped to get his shoes shined.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 158 | I want to get in the history books myself.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 159 | He got into the history books on his day off.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 164 | Fard Muhammad got in<b>to the Chrysler</i>


  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 164 | Julie told me a Barcelona story <i>of <b>getting locked in the Parque Güell with her boyfriend after visiting hours.
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 170 | When Milton got to the end of the song, [...]

Conversation / Reported speech

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 15 | "Did you get burned?"
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 15 | "He gets into everything."


  • Book I § Matchmaking § 23 | "Ev'ry morning, ev'ry evening, ain't we got fun"
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 23 | "In the meantime, in-between time, ain't we got fun"
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 23 | He was still singing -- "Not much money, Oh! but honey" -- fixing his cuff links, parting his hair; but then he looked up and saw his sister -- ain't we got" -- and pianissimo now -- fun" -- fell silent.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 24 | With a steady, determined voice, he'd answered, "I'm trying to get that feeling."
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 36 | Lucille's father welcomed him, then said, "We'll leave you two alone. To get acquainted."


  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 43 | "Where can we get a boat? In Constantinople?"
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 | "Maybe we'll be lucky tomorrow and get a ride. And when we get to Symrna, we'll get a boat to Athens" -- his voice tight, funny sounding, a few tones higher than normal -- "and from Athens we'll get a boat to America."
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 | "We're going to get out of here. [...] We're going to get out of here".


  • Book I § The Silk Road § 69 | "From what I hear, Tilden doesn't just play tennis with his protégés, if you get my drift.
    • you = recipient/beneficiary argument


  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 81-2 | "To the Conductor: Please show bearer where to change and where to get off, as this person does not speak English. [...]"
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 84 | "You got married fast enough."
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 84 | "We heard about the fire. Terrible. I was so worried until I got your letter."
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 | "They don't get along?"
    • standard US reciprocal // UK = get on // unlike French which requires a manner (bien/mal s'entendre) and in which explicit pointing would be awkward/redundant, English accepts the explicit naming of the agents in a with-clause. ... with each other
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 | "Now about the rent. You just got married?"
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 | "I didn't get a dowry."
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 | "Now about the rent. Why did you get married then?"
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 | "if you don't get paid, don't get married?"
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 92 | "Don't worry. You'll get used to it."
    • difficult to identify the syntactic unit here: however, "used to" follows the pronunciation pattern for the imperfective particle /ju:stə/ or /ju:stʊ/ preceding consonants, unlike the passive, which does not: "This tool is used to measure..." where /tu:/ remains long and lexical.


  • Book II § Minotaurs § 111 | "I used to work for the railroad. [...] Then I got smart.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 113 | "When I got here, I was broke."
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 111 | "I don't approve of women voting mind you. And now they get to vote!
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 115 | "It usually takes a woman five or six months to get pregnant."
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 116 | "Even first cousins have to get permission from a bishop."
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 117 | "You have to get a dowry and find a husband."
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 119 | "Get ready. We have business tonight.


  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 127 | "How do you keep from getting pregnant?"
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 129 | "My mother said as long as you're nursing, you can't get pregnant."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 137 | "I don't get anything from you."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 137 | "I work all the time and I get nothing."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 | "Tomorrow morning you're going to go ___ get a job."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 | "In Greece, a husband wouldn't make his wife go out and ___ get a job."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 | "Then congratulations, you have a job. If it's not gone by the time you get there.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 | "Get off at Hastings."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 | WHO-WiLL-HELP-ME-____ GET-A-JOB.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 145 | "People come in here, they say they know silk, but they don't know nothing. Just trying to get hired and fired. Get a day's pay.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 145 | "Let me show you the operation we got going.
    • ambiguous between the media-passive and the got-possessive. (most likely simple possessive here, but both interpretations are viable)
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 147 | "We got more on the way".


  • Book II § Tricknology § 162 | He had invented all the mythologies "to get all the money Ø he could".


  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 172 | "I get hot."
    • regardless of the cause it's a resultative, like the next one:
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 174 | When she didn't wash it enough, it got oily[.]
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 176 | Where does he get it?

Got-possession

  • Book I § The Silk Road § 73 | "He's got his own business, right?"


  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 104 | "This so-called Jimmy Zizmo. He's got a police record."


  • Book II § Minotaurs § 123 | "He's got this ball of string his girlfriend gave him, see. And he's using it to find his way out of the maze."


  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 144 | "We got a problem. What you is?"
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 145 | "Let me show you the operation we got going.
    • Ambiguous in this dialect between media-passive and possessive
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 145 | "We got everything, all we need is a little know-how."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 147 | "We got more on the way."
    • it seems the comparative head must not be included in the kernel, on a possessive reading.


  • Book II § Tricknology § 158 | But at least they've got these compasses.

Non-human subject // Unspecified agent subject

Narrative

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 6 | In the spring of 1959 when discussions of my fertilization got under way, my mother couldn't foresee that women would soon be burning their brassieres by the thousand.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 15 | Standing at the window, my brother wanted more than anything to believe in an American God who got resurrected on the right day.


  • Book I § Matchmaking § 31 | His prayer begins with words he learned as a child [...], but soon it vers off, becoming personal with [...] and then turning a little accusatory, praying [...] but getting abject finally with [...] eyes squeezed shut, hands bending the derby's brim, the words dripting up with the incense toward a Christ-in-progress.


  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 54 | [T]here are other faces pressed to slats, Armenian, Bulgarian and Greek eyes peeking out of hideaways and attics to get a look at the conqueror and divine his intentions; [...]
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 79 | [...] previous to the day a young Henry ford knocked down his workshop wall because, in devising his "quadricycle," he'd thought of everything but how to get the damn thing out; [...]
    • he and the null-subject of the infinitival need not be the same, or human.
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Language Melting Port § 87 | Sourmelina insisted on __ getting a porter to carry their suitcases to the car[.]
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 79 | Outide Hudson's Deparment Store the crowd was ten thick, jostling to get in the newfangled revolving doors.
    • resultative
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 109 | Parents are supposed to pass down physical traits to their children, but it's my belief that all sorts of other things get passed down, too: motifs, scenarios, even fates.

Conversation

  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 47 | The wound was on the man's thumb, where the nail was missing. [--]"How did this happen?" [--]"First the Greeks invaded," the refugee said. "Then the Turks invaded back. My hand got in the way."
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 52 | "Look at those poor wretches. Left to fend for themselves. when word gets out about the Greek commissioner's leaving, it's going to be pandemonium."
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Language Melting Port § 87 | "Just my luck. Soon as I leave the village, things get interesting
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Language Melting Port § 87 | "To get ___ out of that country, Des, I would have married a cripple."
    • It seems to me that I is more the object than the subject of the purpose clause.


  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 145 | "But with this De-pression, fabric getting harder and harder to come by."


  • Book II § Tricknology § 151 | Fabric was getting harder to come by, but Sister Wanda had stockpiled quite a bit.
    • narrator is citing previous dialogue...
  • Book II § Tricknology § 151 | "Got more on the way, [...] be here directly."
    • the presumed subjects and inflectional nodes being: "We('ve / Ø)" and "They'(ll / Ø)". It is this modal Ø (sometimes said to mark the subjunctive in BAE as in AmE (in other contexts, "She suggested he Ø get..." for example) that renders "get" ambiguous.