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From: Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: What's with ?
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 20:24:59 +0100
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On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 18:44:31 +0800, Lion <Nospam@com.sg> wrote:
> Pardon my ignorance. What's the meaning of 'what's with' in this context.
> When written in full, what do these two words stand for ?
It's an American colloqialism, an idiom which doesn't make much sense
literally. "What is the situation regarding ..." might be a more full
translation of it in this case. In some others it's a contraction of
"What is happening with ...", as in "What's with the picnic on
Saturday?"
So what the poster meant in this case was something like:
"What is the situation regarding the use of the double negative in
English?"
It's an idiom which has, via television and other media, made its way
into English as well, unfortunately...
Chris C
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