"I didn't know he was gay, Gary Cooper"

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I had trouble coming up with a title for this, since the main point is that I want to know the term for this type of construction.

FWIW, the quote is from an episode of The Sopranos written (I believe) by Michael Imperioli (Christopher) who speaks the line as he, Tony, Silvio and maybe somebody else are driving back from the Mohunk casino after they have gone there to try to get the proprietor, Chief Somebody, to intercede for some Columbus Day parade uprising by Native Americans versus Italian Americans.

Anyway, what do you call that construction where the subject is tacked on to the end of the sentence?

Is it a more regional usage? I don’t think it’s common in the South, though I could easily be wrong.

Does this make any sense?

2

It is a good line, spoken as New Jersey mobster might speak it. You see, English (heck every language) has two grammars. We all study the written one, but the spoken language includes rhythms, inflections and hand gestures. We say things all the time we would never write.

“Anyone home?”
“Seen Paul?”

In this case, Christopher is speaking what is on his mind, and then adding a clause to make the subject of his rumination clearer to his audience.

3

I hear this kind of thing a lot from sportscasters. Something like “He’s got great speed, [someone who’s fast]”.

And, no, I have no answer. But I’d like to read about one.

4

[Checks Watch]
No geeks from Cafe Society yet suggesting it’s known as Yoda-speak?
[/Checks Watch]

I’m no grammer teacher, but wouldn’t the placement of the subject at the end of a sentence be referred to as passive - as opposed to active - structure?

5

We used to illustrate this grammatical error by saying things like, “Throw me down the stairs my coat.” I’m not sure what it’s called. But I sometimes do it just because it can be very entertaining.

6

Active voice is subject-verb-object. Passive voice is object-was verb-prepositional phrase with the subject as the object of the preposition.

7

Gary Cooper was gay?

8

This sort of thing could get confusing if you had something like: “She slapped him hard for looking at her, Jane, Jim, Sally.”

9

It’s a NYC area thing. I remember my little cousin complaining at the beach, “It’s cold, the water!”

10

[Geek Reply]
Well, see, Yoda-speak would’ve left the name off entirely and the sentence would’ve run something like:
“Knew I not that gay he was,” only Yoda was supposed to be all great and wise and stuff so of course Yoda would’ve said “Knew I that gay he was, matters it not,” or something like that.

And I don’t even hang out in CS

11

curious Are these sentences spoken with a minor pause in between the sentence and the subject? This makes me think it could be written with an emdash, perhaps.

12

Might be in the original script, which would help a little, I guess. I don’t remember if the CC (which I have gotten in the habit of using for the majority of the time) punctuated the sentence with a dash or a comma. Would that matter with the grammar, you think?

13

Yeah, dat too, phouka’s post.

14

He uses that construction in every tennis match he colorcasts, Patrick McEnroe.

15

I’ve heard this kind of speak when I was a kid. It was called Pennsylvania Dutch.
Like “Through Mama from the train, a kiss.”

16

Then why bring up my cousin? Well, 4th cousin… I didn’t know that either I did know he was only 5’2" tall (not sure, exactly )
Ok, I’ll shut up now, carry on.

17

Nitpick: The exact line (according to the DVD subtitles) is:

"He was gay, Gary Cooper?"
Carry on…

18

Thanks. I admit my “quote” was from memory. I should have checked one of my tapes for it, the quote.