Ain't ain't a word...right?

[mhendo]

As plenty of people have pointed out, “ain’t” is certainly a word. The problem of when it should be used is a much more fraught issue, and one that tends to divide people.

For those who are interested, i’ve placed below the entry for “ain’t” from Bryan Garner’s Dictionary of Modern American Usage, which is probably the best book on American usage currently in print.

ain’t. Is this word used orally in most parts of the country by cultivated speakers? That’s what W3 [Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language] said in 1961, and it provoked a firestorm of protests from journalists and academics…W3’s assessment was quite a change from that of W2 (1934), which had given it a tag: “Dial. or Illit.” The editor of W3, Philip Gove, explained the change by conceding that he had no large files of empirical evidence: “[K]nowledge of some kind of language behavior comes through contact with its observers and is not always documented because there seems to be no reason to collect additional evidence.” …If that’s the method, then one can confidently say that W3’s treatment was flawed in its incompleteness.

Yes, ain’t is used by cultivated speakers, but almost always for either of two reasons: (1) to be tongue-in-cheek; and (2) to flaunt their reverse snobbery. For most people, it remains a shibboleth of poor usage - a NONWORD. All in all, the 1934 has either remained accurate or been bolstered.

(p. 28)

[Coilean]

*Originally posted by slipster *
**James Thurber once did a critique of an I.Q. test. It contained this statement: “(a) pound of lead is heavier than a pound of feathers”, or something similar. One was supposed to change one word in the sentence to make it correct. Incredibly, the test writers had decreed that the “correct” answer was to say “(a) pound of lead is heaver than an ounceof feathers”. This, of course, required changing two words rather than one. He suggested that the correct answer was to say “(a) pound of lead ain’t heavier than a pound of feathers”.

He had them there.

**

I beg to differ.

If we take the original senternce “a pound of lead is heavier than a pound of feathers”, and, as suggested by the test, substitute ‘an ounce’ for ‘a pound’ we have an overall change of four words–a deletion of two words and replacement of two words. Thurman’s suggestion, that we delete ‘is’ and replace with ‘ain’t’, leaves us with overall change of two words. As the directions stipulate that we can only change one word, I think the only accurate solution is to insert ‘not’ directly after is. Thus the sentence would read “a pound of lead is not heavier than a pound of feathers.”

[Dragonblink]

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I use “ain’t”, it’s usually in combination with an emphatic multiple negative, like the aforementioned “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet”, especially when contracted with “there” or “it” such as “th’ain’t” and “'tain’t”.

Multiple negatives were once a perfectly acceptable construction in English (check Shakespeare for some examples), as apparently was ain’t, so I guess I just tend toward archaicisms. But very rarely do I hear ain’t being used without another negative – “Th’ain’t any” is much rarer than “Th’ain’t none”. I wonder how the two are linked?

– Dragonblink, linguistics major

[El_Zagna]

*Originally posted by slipster *
**Years ago I heard a recording of John Barrymore in which he observed that it was his sister Ethel who coined the famous expression “that’s all there is, there isn’t any more”. This struck me as faintly ridiculous. She had, of course, said "that’s all there is, there ain’tno more, and seemed silly and pretentious to say otherwise. **

I enjoy annoying my kids by singing popular songs with “corrected” lyrics. “I cannot get any satisfaction”, “Don’t give me any of your aggravation / I’ve lost patience with your discipline” (Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting).

[Wendell_Wagner]

bnorton,

So why didn’t you correct “alright” to “all right”?

[Pere_D_Oxy_Moron]

Irregardless of what you’ve been told, “ain’t” is a word.

[Monty]

Neither’s “irregardless” according to some folks, Pere.

[mhendo]

Monty, i may be wrong, but i think that Pere’s winking smiley was meant to suggest that he’s aware of that.

[Shade]

*Originally posted by Coileán *
**I beg to differ.

If we take the original senternce “a pound of lead is heavier than a pound of feathers”, and, as suggested by the test, substitute ‘an ounce’ for ‘a pound’ we have an overall change of four words–a deletion of two words and replacement of two words. Thurman’s suggestion, that we delete ‘is’ and replace with ‘ain’t’, leaves us with overall change of two words. As the directions stipulate that we can only change one word, I think the only accurate solution is to insert ‘not’ directly after is. Thus the sentence would read “a pound of lead is not heavier than a pound of feathers.” **

Are you joking? I understand ‘Changing one word’ to generally mean altering, or replacing, one word. Eg. Canging ‘pound’ to ‘ounce’. Of course, it’s semantics, it depends whether you mean ‘word of the sentace’ or ‘word of the language’.

I’d answer:

is->isn’t (if contractions count as words)
pound [of lead]-> ton, tonne, kilogramme, litre
pound [of feathers]->pair, gram, milligram, litre
heavier->denser, smaller, >= (ok that’s cheating)

[El_Zagna]

*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner *
**bnorton,

So why didn’t you correct “alright” to “all right”? **

What!? And violate Gaudere’s law?

[Captain_Amazing]

Some people say 'tain’t proper to use it, but you don’t gotta pay 'em no mind.

[Shade]

*Originally posted by bnorton *
quote:

Originally posted by Achernar
Then what’s the contraction for “I typically am not”?

**“Typically, I’m not” or “I’m not typically”. **

[ntipick] Wouldn’t “I’m typically not” be more precise than “I’m not typically”?[/nitpick] No, I’m being stupid.

[David_Simmons]

*Originally posted by Captain Amazing *
**Some people say 'tain’t proper to use it, but you don’t gotta pay 'em no mind. **

Right. When I was growing up, “I ain’t got no … (whatevers)” was the preferred construction. Those who said things like “I don’t have any …” were looked on as pretentiously pedantic, although we didn’t use those exact words.