Middlesex

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

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.


Contents

Occurences of get (Books I & II)

Finite human subject

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 medio-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 drifting 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.
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 178 | My grandfather, who had sat through the clarinet serenades as he sat through everything, aware of their significance but unconvinced of the wisdom of getting involved, now glared at his son.
    • (of anyone's getting involved) is a possible reading

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.

Intermission

quotes on language

examples of forget

  • Book II § News of the World § 186 | He wanted to get back at Tessie and he wanted to forget her.
    • too tough to resist making up this curious obverse of "get" (the version with the forclusive prefix is much, much older in the language)
  • Book III § The Obscure Object § 326 | One day in class Mr. da Silva asked the Object to read aloud. § [...] Without moving, she said, "I forgot my book."
    • passive resistance (agency?)

synaesthesia

  • Book III § The Obscure Object § 326 | I'd never been this close to the Obscure Object before. It was hard on my organism. My nervous system launched into "Flight of the Bumblebee." The violins were sawing away in my spine. The timpani were banging in my chest."

Notes on voice

  • Book III § The Obscure Object § 326 | I expected a nasal monotone, riddled with mispronunciations. I expected bumps, swerves, screeching brakes, head on cllisions. But the Obscure Object had a good reading voice. It was clear, strong, supple in its rhythms. It was a voice she'd picked up at home, from poetry-reading uncles who drank too much. [...] I wonder which was stranger, the Eartha Kitt voice that came out of my mouth or the Katharine Hepburn that came out of hers.

lingua-babble

To forget, first you have to "get" (understand, know, seize, etc.), only then can you forget. Strangely, forget was in the language centuries (how many?) before get showed up. It has of course regularly incurred the wrath of style guide writers (Fowler, others?, check Mencken), and has been discussed by historians of the language (Visser, find Jespersen cit.!, Curme).

à mettre ailleurs: It seems to me that it should be beyond controversy that language contact in colonial time, followed by the increasing mechanization and even robotization of tasks such as "getting", has contributed to the massive rise in use of the verb "get" in the twentieth century. I find it interesting that the last word of the novel names an operating system: [NeXT]

Book III -> Fin: syntax of get

abbreviations

  • t = transitive;  !t = intransitive
  • t-loc = transitive head, (locative) argument. e.g. get over (t)here.
    • while an argument is required either before or after over, it need not be locative: get over it vs get it over.
  • nhs = non-human subject
  • d=dialogue; d-Speaker
  • n=narrative
  • sit=situative
  • VN= verbal noun
  • OoD=object of desire

situatives

  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 § d- | "We're going to get out of here. [...] We're going to get out of here".
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 113 § d- | "When I got here, I was broke."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 § d- | "Then congratulations, you have a job. If it's not gone by the time you get there.
  • missing get home

adpositional phrase

along

  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 § d- | "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

around

  • Book II § Tricknology § 155 § n | but Minister Fard hadn't gotten around to the girls yet, so here she was, still Darlene Wood.

at

  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 129 § n | People crowded around trying to get a look at her new baby.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 § d- | "Get off at Hastings."

away

  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 § n | When you got away from the quay you could almost forget that there was a crisis on.
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 178 § d- | But Tessie told him, "Get away."



down

  • Book III § The Wolverette § 293 § n | "Ethnic girls" we were called, but then who wasn't, when you got right down to it.

in

  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 94 § n | [...] 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 § Marriage on Ice § 127 § n | 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 § Tricknology § 158 § n | I want to get in the history books myself.

into

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 15 § d- | "He gets into everything."


  • Book II § Minotaurs § 113 § n | "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 § Marriage on Ice § 146 § n | Leave them there, climbing, while I explain what my grandmother had gotten herself into twhat.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 164 § n | Fard Muhammad got into the Chrysler
  • Book II § Tricknology § 157 § n | Lefty hurried outside and gets into the backseat.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 159 § n | He got into the history books on his day off.
    • Book II § Tricknology § 158 § n | I want to get in the history books myself.
  • Book III § Middlesex § 270 § n | And then she got into bed.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 281 § n § nhs | [...] everything she did made too much noise, her cigarette smoke got into everything.
    • she got her smoke into... (?)
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 286 § n | [...] Desdemona was perfectly healthy when she got into bed[.]


off

preposition

  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 81-2 § d- | "To the Conductor: Please show bearer where to change and where to get off, as this person does not speak English. [...]"
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 § d- | "Get off at Hastings."
  • Book II § News of the World § 185 § n | Like Dukakis[...] Milton, too, couldn't get off his moving vehicle.
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 102 § n | 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 III § Opa § 249 § n § t| I get off my bike and peek across the street at the diner.
  • Book III § Middlesex § 260 § n | Then, she abruptly got off.
    • perhaps deliberately ambiguous, but the antecedent is: "Clementine mounted a rocking horse."
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 315 § d-C11 | [...] a necrophiliac. [...] That's someone who gets off on dead people.

after object

  • Book III § Opa! § 237 § d-67riot | "Get yo' hands offa them, motherfucking pigs!"
    • "hands" less central to meaning than "off"

on

preposition

after object

  • Book III § Home Movies § 218 § n § t| Baby pictures [...] show a variety of features on the freakish side. My parents, [...], got stuck on every one.
    • my instinct is that "stuck" is no more central to the semantics than is "on". Other sensible people will certainly disagree.
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 315 § d-C11 | [...] a necrophiliac. [...] That's someone who gets off on dead people.

out

preposed

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 17 § n | 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 § An Immodest Proposal § 43 § n | Afraid to get out of bed, he sent the barber away, forgetting his morning shave.
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 § d- | "We're going to get out of here. [...] We're going to get out of here".
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 111 § n | He gets out of the car.
  • Book III § Home Movies § 228 § d-Jim § imp § !t| "Get out while the getting's good."
    • get yourself out while the getting is good. Note that the verbal noun cannot be modified by a possessive determiner in place of the definite article. Note that "out" is implied in the second clause. I wonder if this type of "gapping" has been discussed.
  • Book III § Middlesex § 270 § n | For the next ten years [...] she never got out again.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 289 § n | Tessie who for almost two years now had taken care of an old lady who wouldn't get out of bed.
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 316 § d-Cal | Will you guys get out of here!

after object

  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 133 | Practically speaking, this meant Desdemona got them out of bed in the morning, [... .]
  • Book II § News of the World § 196 § d- | "I tell you St. Christopher Ø get you out of the war."
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 290 § d-Milt | "Just when we get you kids out of that hellhole."

over

  • Book II § Minotaurs § 106 § n | A word on my shame. I don't condone it. I'm trying my best to __ get __ over it
  • Book III § Home Movies § 228 § d-Milt § t-loc| "Get over here right now."
    • "over" may be less central to the result desired than the situative shifter here, but the path is brought into focus through its use.

to (includes all predicates/clauses ending in the pivot or junctor (-)to

preposition

  • Book I § Matchmaking § 20 § n | 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 § 24 § n | 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 § An Immodest Proposal § 49 § d- | "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 § The Silk Road § 71-2 § n | Instead of getting to know each other, [...] Desdemona and Lefty tried to defamiliarize themselves with one another.
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 82 § n | 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 § Minotaurs § 111 § d- | "I don't approve of women voting mind you. And now they get to vote!
  • Book II § Tricknology § 155 § n | but Minister Fard hadn't gotten<b> around <b>to the girls yet, so here she was, still Darlene Wood.


  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 170 § n | When Milton got to the end of the song, [...]
  • Book II § News of the World § 186 § n | He had always wanted to be an American and now he got to see what his fellow Americans were like twhat.
  • Book II § News of the World § 186 § n | They got to bed at three or four in the morning


  • Book III § Home Movies § 228 § n § t| By the time I got to know him, [...] Grimes was coming into his manhood.
  • Book III § Opa! § 231 § n | Shall I get right to it?
  • Book III § Middlesex § 260 § n | [...] - but she could never get used to the skylight[.]
    • copy other "get used to" occurences here?
  • Book III § Middlesex § 268 § n/im-Des | Let me die now. Before Lefty gets back to the boat.
  • Book III § Middlesex § 270 § n | And then she got into bed.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 274 § d-Des | Some other lady maybe she die and try to get next to my husband.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 281 § n § nhs | [...] everything she did made too much noise, her cigarette smoke got into everything.
    • she got her smoke into... (?)
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 281 § n | We got to know them
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 292 § n | She's pulling up to the curb and <i>getting ready to lay a curse on us.
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 293 § n | "Ethnic girls" we were called, but then who wasn't, when you got right down to it.
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 302 § d-Tess | When the Plato got to be hard going.
    • get (to be hard) going?
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 311 § n | But on weekends I got to experiment, within limits.

after object

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 13 § n | 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 § Matchmaking § 19 § n | (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.)

through

  • Book I § The Silk Road § 74 § n| 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.


up

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 11 § n | Now my mother gets up from the so-called love seat.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 11 § n | Now my father gets up to make his rounds, turning out lights, locking doors.
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 § n | When all his money was gone, Lefty got up and said with disgusted anger, "Can I leave now?"
  • Book II § Tricknology § 155 | She got up from the floor.
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 178 § d- | Worried about what Milton and Tessie were getting up to twhat, my grandmother wasn't only trying to marry Milton off to somebody else.
  • Book II § News of the World § 190 § d- | "She works six days a week but on Sundays gets up bright and early to take Mrs. Tsontakis to church[.]"
  • Book II § News of the World § 193 § n | She gets up to leave.
  • Book II § News of the World § 194 § n | For three days she stays there, getting up only to go to the bathroom.
  • Book II § News of the World § 194 § n | Desdemona did not get up to answer it[.]
  • Book III § Home Movies § 223 § n § t/!t | He got up early every day, bathed, shaved, and put on a necktie to translate Attic Greek for two hours before breakfast.
  • Book III § Middlesex § 267 § n | Everyday he got up as though he were going to work.
  • Book III § Middlesex § 268 § n | And then one morning when she got up, [...].

Verbal

participial

present

  • Book III § Home Movies § 228 § d-Jim § VN | "Get out while the getting's good."
    • get yourself out while the getting is good. Note that the verbal noun cannot be modified by a possessive determiner in place of the definite article. Note that "out" is implied in the second clause. I wonder if this type of "gapping" has been discussed.
  • Book III § Home Movies § 228 § n § VN | The getting out was no longer good.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 145 § d- | "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 III § The Obscure Object § 300 § n | A winter during which Tessie's worries about her children immobilized her, so that she failed to return Christmas presents that didn't fit and merely put them in the closet, without <i>getting a refund.
    • in general, not sure I've been adding get-OBJ of PREP here. Curious that the OBJ is a preppie.

past

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 15 § d- | "Did you get burned?"
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 31 § n | He let himself get cajoled into playing, just one, then lost and had to go double or nothing.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 32-3 § n | Hung over and feverish, Lefty told himself that his sister was right: it was time for him to get married.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 36 § d- | Lucille's father welcomed him, then said, "We'll leave you two alone. To get acquainted."
  • Book I § The Silk Road § 68 § n | 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 II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 83 § n | 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 § 84 § d- | "You got married fast enough."
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 § d- | "Now about the rent. You just got married?"
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 § d- | "Now about the rent. Why did you get married then?"
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 § d- | "if you don't get paid, don't get married?"
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 139 § n | She walked by a barbershop where men were getting their hair straightened[.]
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 145 § d- | "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 § Tricknology § 155 § n | 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 § n | Darlene Wood was beginning to get miffed because...
  • Book II § Tricknology § 155 § n | all the brothers had gotten rid of their slave names ...
    • past participle?
  • Book II § Tricknology § 158 § n | 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 § Clarinet Serenade § 164 § n | Julie told me a Barcelona story of getting locked in the Parque Güell with her boyfriend after visiting hours.
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 178 § d- | They are going to get married as soon as [...]
  • Book II § News of the World § 186 § n | Every night someone got injured.
  • Book II § News of the World § 186 § n | Guys fell and got swept underneath.
  • Book II § News of the World § 186 § n | They were in the boats for hours together, getting slammed around, [...].
  • Book II § News of the World § 195 § d- | "If you and Miltie want to get married, you have my blessing."
  • Book III § Home Movies § 218 § n | Baby pictures [...] show a variety of features on the freakish side. My parents, [...], got stuck on every one.
  • Book III § Home Movies § 220 § d-Des | "Think of Father Mike. [...] You think if his own niece she no gets baptized it will look good?"
  • Book III § Middlesex § 263 § n | When I told my life story to Dr. Luce, the place where he invariably got interested was where I came to Clementine Stark.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 284 § n | Whatever it was, it seemed safely far off, like getting married or giving birth.
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 310 § n | As if, now that we were getting waxed together, she could treat me like an adult.
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 310 § d-Tess | Sophie, maybe you can convince Callie to get her hair cut[.]
    • subject to object raising --> convince (?)
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 315 § n | I thought I might get crushed.

theme argument of causative verb

  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 279 § n | For ten seconds, Chapter Eleven studied my documents, detecting no forgery, as the clouds burst overhead, and I made him get me one more piece of cake.

collocations / grammaticalizations

come (and/to) get

  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 318 § d-MegZemka | Come and get it, baby

going to get

  • Book III § Home Movies § 220 § n | Assumption was finally going to get a grand church building.

mean (Ø, to)

  • Book III § The Obscure Object § 323 § n | I mean the heart pleasure you get from looking at speckled leaves or the palimpsested bark of plane trees in Provence.
    • from Whitman past a Plain Jane to Pound.

try (and/to) get | other troll-con verbs

  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 129 | People crowded around trying to get a look at her new baby.


  • Book III § Home Movies § 218 § n | I was trying to get another cappuccino.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 274 § d-Des | Some other lady maybe she die and try to get next to my husband.
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 306 § n | In vain Milton tried to get me to wear one of the paper hats his employees had to wear by law.
passive V to get
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 272 § n | I certainly noticed, because I was a girl at the time and those ads were designed to get my attention.
managed (to) get
  • Book III § Middlesex § 257 § n | Over the barrier of the Point System, my father managed to get us a house in Grosse Pointe.
    • note.ly :)

gotta (generally found above with 'to')

  • Book III § Home Movies § 220 § d-Mil | Then you gotta pay for the rest of your life.
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 316 § d-C11 | You gotta experiment to see what works.

have to get

get used to

  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 92 § d- | "Don't worry. You'll get used to it."
  • 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 III § Middlesex § 260 § n | [...] - but she could never get used to the skylight[.]
  • Book III § Middlesex § 262 § n | I was getting used to Grosse Pointe, to [...].
  • Book III § Middlesex § 262 § n | Whereas, my grandfather was getting used to a much more terrifying reality.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 272 § d-Julie | We could get used to the diet.
    • Cal --> we could get a Pomeranian.
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 293 § n | I couldn't get used to the funny little sticks or the nebulous, European strategies.
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 295 § n | Of all the things I had to get used to at my new school, the most difficult, therefore, was the locker room.

NP/DP (complement)

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 11 § n | We may get another boy
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 23 § d-Song | "Ev'ry morning, ev'ry evening, ain't we got fun"
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 23 § d-Song | "In the meantime, in-between time, ain't we got fun"
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 23 § d-Lef| 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 § d- | With a steady, determined voice, he'd answered, "I'm trying to get that feeling."
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 30 § n | 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 § An Immodest Proposal § 43 § d- | "Where can we get a boat? In Constantinople?"
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 § d- | "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 § The Silk Road § 69 § d- | "From what I hear, Tilden doesn't just play tennis with his protégés, if you get my drift.
    • you = recipient/beneficiary argument
  • Book I § The Silk Road § 76 § d-Capt| "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 § 84 § d- | "We heard about the fire. Terrible. I was so worried until I got your letter."
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 85 § d- | "I didn't get a dowry."
  • Book II § Ex ovo omnia § 199 § n | He and Tessie were stationed at Pearl Harbor, where [...], and where my mother, at twenty-five , got a terrible sunburn and was never seen in a bathing suit again.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 108 § n | When the curtain rose at the Family Theater, my relatives expected to get the whole story.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 116 § d- | "Even first cousins have to get permission from a bishop."
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 117 § d- | "You have to get a dowry and find a husband."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 137 § d- | "I don't get anything from you."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 137 § d- | "I work all the time and I get nothing."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 § d- | "Tomorrow morning you're going to go ___ get a job."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 § d- | "In Greece, a husband wouldn't make his wife go out and ___ get a job."
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 138 § d- | WHO-WiLL-HELP-ME-____ GET-A-JOB.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 139 § n? | I wouldn't have to get a job.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 145 § d- | "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 § Tricknology § 157 § n | Milton got good marks from school.
  • Book II § Tricknology § 158 § n | 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 § 162 § d- | He had invented all the mythologies "to get all the money Ø he could".
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 176 § d- | Where does he get it?
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 181 § d- | "Listen, sugar. She don't want to talk to you. Get it?"
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 181 § d- | "Yeah, I got it."
  • Book II § News of the World § 183 § d- | She hadn't eaten, so I suggested we Ø get something.
  • Book II § Ex ovo omnia § 194 § n | Getting to my feet [...], I hear her ask [...].
  • Book II § News of the World § 195 § d- | "You can write what you want[, ...] [h]e won't get it."
  • Book II § News of the World § 197 § d- | "Got a promotion, eh?"
  • Book II § News of the World § 197 § d- | She suggested they Ø get some wedding cake.
  • Book III § Home Movies § 228 § d-Gri | You got it. No banks. They don't give loans to black folks.
  • Book III § Home Movies § 231 § d-Gri | "Smart little girl you got here"
    • fronting for focus
  • Book III § Home Movies § 231 § d-Gri | "It's cool, little Cleo. Got this test and all."
    • no subject marking whatsoever. "and all" is very curious. a conjoined fused head (AdvP / QP / NP)
  • Book III § Home Movies § 254 § d-Milt | "Okay. Now get a load of this. ...Slowly as if lifted on a magic carpet, the four of us us rose to the upper reaches of the car.
    • (nota bene) -> attention! / attend! , get a load of this
    • get -m(ethod) ObjectofDesire -> getUReaL-> any OoD can use Wget.
  • Book III § Middlesex § 256 § d-EstateAgent | "I've got your telephone number."
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 272 § d-Cal | we could get a Pomeranian.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 275 § n | Instead of sailing from Turkey to America, this time she would be traveling from earth to heaven, where Lefty had already gotten his citizenship and had a place waiting.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 275 § d-Milt | "MacDonald has Golden Arches? [...] We've got the Pillars of Hercules.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 275 § n | They also got people's attention.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 277 § n | I certainly noticed, because I was a girl at the time and those ads were designed to get my attention.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 282 § n § nhs | Lake swans unfurled tremendous necks to get a glimpse.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 288 § d-Des | "I'm sorry, honey. But it's just, you've got nothing to ... to ... [...] ... to hold it up."
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 294 § n | At the beginning of seventh grade I got braces, a full set.
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 299 § n | Tessie had urged me to get an old-fashioned training bra, [...].
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 300 § d-Tess | Don't worry. The whole thing'll be over before they can get you.
  • Book III § The Waxing Lyrical § 307 § n | You don't get the bright leaves here in Europe like you do in New England.
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 315 § n | They get minimum wage.
  • Book III § Waxing Lyrical § 315 § d-Milt | You got a real live wire here[.]
  • Book III § The Obscure Object § 300 § n | A winter during which Tessie's worries about her children immobilized her, so that she failed to return Christmas presents that didn't fit and merely put them in the closet, without getting a refund.

Fused Head NP/DP=

  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 147 § d- | "We got more on the way".

Double object

  • Book I § The Silk Road § 76 § d- | "Maybe I could get you a blanket?"
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 272 § d-Des | Get me another doctor who he isn't already dead himself.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 279 § n | For ten seconds, Chapter Eleven studied my documents, detecting no forgery, as the clouds burst overhead, and I made him get me one more piece of cake.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 288 § n | We'll get you a bra if you want.

Goal argument

  • Book III § The Obscure Object § 325 § n | It was the surrealist touch that got me.
    • In many scenes F. Rey is shown holding a heavy sack over his shoulder. The reason for this sack is never mentioned.
      • Get a load of this.

adjectival

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 14 § n| He was trying to fill a coffee cup, but once he got the tap open he couldn't get it closed.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 20 § n| She gets really fat again.
    • narrator rewinds the tape through pregnancy
  • Book II § Henry Ford's English Melting Pot § 83 § n | 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 § Minotaurs § 111 § d- | "I used to work for the railroad. [...] Then I got smart.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 115 § d- | "It usually takes a woman five or six months to get pregnant."
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 117 § n| She thought back to the night she'd gotten pregnant and tried to reconstruct events.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 119 § d- | "Get ready. We have business tonight.
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 127 § d-Des | "How do you keep from getting pregnant?"
  • Book II § Marriage on Ice § 129 § d- | "My mother said as long as you're nursing, you can't get pregnant."
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 172 § d- | "I get hot."
  • Book II § Clarinet Serenade § 174 § n | When she didn't wash it enough, it got oily[.]
  • Book II § News of the World § 186 § n | They were in the boot for hours together, getting slammed around, getting wet
  • Book II § News of the World § 186 § n | [G]uys were already getting sick.
  • Book II § News of the World § 187 § n | They were getting close to shore[.]
  • Book II § News of the World § 187 § n | The other men readjusted their packs and got ready for the make-believe assault[.]


  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 271 § n | When my mother brought in a breakfast tray, Desdemona opened one eye and gestured for her to leave it. Eggs got cold. Coffee filmed over.
    • Repeated past state change, the voicing of this state change is more active than it would be with "The eggs would get cold."
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 279 § n | I'd already gotten quiet on my own.
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 283 § n | My fingers had gotten all wrinkly.
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 292 § n | She's pulling up to the curb and getting ready to lay a curse on us.

comparative

  • 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 II § Minotaurs § 111 | The hum is getting louder now.
  • Book II § Minotaurs § 114 | At thirty weeks her skin thins, and her hair gets thicker.
  • Book III § Opa § 245 § d-Morrison | Another shot rang out, this time closer. Morrison jumped, then smiled. "It sure is bad from my health. And gettin' more dangerous all the time."
  • Book III § The Mediterranean Diet § 286 § n | The equations get longer and longer throughout the year, [...].
  • Book III § The Obscure Object § 320 § n | It's getting harder all the time.
    • Beatles. context: "They believe the ambassador wants to be briefed on the upcoming Aaron Copland tribute. § Its getting harder all the time. With Olivia and every woman who came after her there has been this knowledge to deal with: the great fact of my condition."
      • an erection to the Fanfare of the (un)Common Man?
      • doublecheck that Olivia is Japanese.

adverbial

quantificational complement (predominantly fused heads like all and other arguments)

degree modifiers // order of clitics

  • Book III § Opa! § 231 § n | Shall I get right to it?
  • Book III § The Wolverette § 293 § n | "Ethnic girls" we were called, but then who wasn't, when you got right down to it.

back

  • Book II § News of the World § 186 | He wanted to get back at Tessie and he wanted to forget her.
  • Book III § Middlesex § 268 § n|im-Des | Let me die now. Before Lefty gets back to the boat

source argument

  • Book III § The Obscure Object § 323 § n | I mean the heart pleasure you get from looking at speckled leaves or the palimpsested bark of plane trees in Provence.
    • what you get from X

Particles

off

  • Book III § The Wolverette § 305 § n | He'd say, "let's cut the rug," and we'd be off.
    • off [dancing / cutting rug]

Other Verbs

Fit (in)

  • Book III § The Wolverette § 300 § d-Tess | Whatever the reason, [...], I fit right in.
    • middle voice (past tense has fused with present tense --> unmarked)
  • Book III § The Obscure Object § 323 § n | A winter during which Tessie's worries about her children immobilized her, so that she failed to return Christmas presents that didn't fit and merely put them in the closet, without getting a refund.


Informatique

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  • She tried to bluff her way through class. She hacked up the quizzes and tests. If she'd had a fellow Charm Bracelet with her, they could have formed a faction of uninterested note-passers. Alone, she could only mope. Mr da Silva gave up trying to teach her anything and called on her as little as possible.