gettin' my random on
This morning in the shower I saw two spiders fighting with each other. One of them moved in and stung the other one several times on the abdomen, then its legs all collapsed in on the victim and the two spiders became this wriggling ball of spider parts for a while before the loser managed to disengage and run away. It was....interesting.
Then later today I heard a guy on a cellphone outside Uris library say "I'm gonna go get my read on", as in, he was gonna go study. And he wasn't *deliberately* trying to sound stupid either, as far as I could tell. I'd heard things like "get my groove on" and "get my drink on" and such before, but I'd always interpreted "groove" and "drink" as functioning as nouns in those phrases, not as verbs, so it was surprising to hear an example of "get my X on" with X unambiguously being a *verb*. So then I decide to Google for this phrase with various values of X:
"get my party on" 24,700NV
"get my groove on" 9,130NV
"get my drink on" 4,940NV
"get my game on" 2,880N
"get my dance on" 1,310NV
"get my freak on" 894NV
"get my club on" 776*N
"get my geek on" 734N
"get my blog on" 671*NV
"get my sleep on" 637NV
"get my frag on" 637NV
"get my smoke on" 561NV
"get my chat on" 561NV
"get my money on" 420N
"get my read on" 406V
"get my eat on" 385V
"get my pimp on" 364NV
"get my ball on" 339N
"get my ho on" 310N
"get my fuck on" 287V
"get my school on" 280*N
"get my Mac on" 280*N
"get my gamble on" 246NV
"get my study on" 219NV
"get my walk on" 185NV
"get my chill on" 146V
"get my nerd on" 143N
"get my food on" 95N
"get my run on" 81NV
"get my high on" 70*
"get my sex on" 59N
"get my rap on" 51NV
"get my TV on" 50*N
"get my jump on" 39NV
"get my golf on" 33N
"get my (weed/herb/joint/blunt/spliff) on" 32N
"get my hack on" 31NV
"get my think on" 25V
"get my Jesus on" 24N
"get my goth on" 24N
"get my sushi on" 23N
"get my dream on" 20NV
"get my IRC on" 13N
"get my Google on" 9NV
So it seems that, for many speakers, this pattern is productive with verbs as well as with nouns. Perhaps because of the large number of words in English that are ambiguous between being a noun or a verb (such as "party" or "drink" in the list above), some speakers, upon hearing this construction with one of these ambiguous words, for some reason analyzed the object of "my" as a verb instead of a noun, and then extended the construction to words like "read" that are used as verbs only. Which is really weird, since then you end up with a (non-gerund) verb as the head of a noun phrase. Somehow I doubt people who say things like "get my read on" would also accept sentences like "*This/my eat was delicious."
I don't know, though, "get my read on" still sounds pretty fucking stupid to me.
* But some of these hits are for things that have "on" taking an object (like "get my blog on the web", "get my TV on Tuesday", etc.)
Then later today I heard a guy on a cellphone outside Uris library say "I'm gonna go get my read on", as in, he was gonna go study. And he wasn't *deliberately* trying to sound stupid either, as far as I could tell. I'd heard things like "get my groove on" and "get my drink on" and such before, but I'd always interpreted "groove" and "drink" as functioning as nouns in those phrases, not as verbs, so it was surprising to hear an example of "get my X on" with X unambiguously being a *verb*. So then I decide to Google for this phrase with various values of X:
"get my party on" 24,700NV
"get my groove on" 9,130NV
"get my drink on" 4,940NV
"get my game on" 2,880N
"get my dance on" 1,310NV
"get my freak on" 894NV
"get my club on" 776*N
"get my geek on" 734N
"get my blog on" 671*NV
"get my sleep on" 637NV
"get my frag on" 637NV
"get my smoke on" 561NV
"get my chat on" 561NV
"get my money on" 420N
"get my read on" 406V
"get my eat on" 385V
"get my pimp on" 364NV
"get my ball on" 339N
"get my ho on" 310N
"get my fuck on" 287V
"get my school on" 280*N
"get my Mac on" 280*N
"get my gamble on" 246NV
"get my study on" 219NV
"get my walk on" 185NV
"get my chill on" 146V
"get my nerd on" 143N
"get my food on" 95N
"get my run on" 81NV
"get my high on" 70*
"get my sex on" 59N
"get my rap on" 51NV
"get my TV on" 50*N
"get my jump on" 39NV
"get my golf on" 33N
"get my (weed/herb/joint/blunt/spliff) on" 32N
"get my hack on" 31NV
"get my think on" 25V
"get my Jesus on" 24N
"get my goth on" 24N
"get my sushi on" 23N
"get my dream on" 20NV
"get my IRC on" 13N
"get my Google on" 9NV
So it seems that, for many speakers, this pattern is productive with verbs as well as with nouns. Perhaps because of the large number of words in English that are ambiguous between being a noun or a verb (such as "party" or "drink" in the list above), some speakers, upon hearing this construction with one of these ambiguous words, for some reason analyzed the object of "my" as a verb instead of a noun, and then extended the construction to words like "read" that are used as verbs only. Which is really weird, since then you end up with a (non-gerund) verb as the head of a noun phrase. Somehow I doubt people who say things like "get my read on" would also accept sentences like "*This/my eat was delicious."
I don't know, though, "get my read on" still sounds pretty fucking stupid to me.
* But some of these hits are for things that have "on" taking an object (like "get my blog on the web", "get my TV on Tuesday", etc.)