Re: Is "is" a verb?

From: DE781 (de781_at_aol.com)
Date: 06/15/04 

Date: 15 Jun 2004 09:39:55 -0700

"Dylan Nicholson" <wizofaus@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<2j6qmtFub0n6U1@uni-berlin.de>...
> "DE781" <de781@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:c98b1ba0.0406141453.2e330253@posting.google.com...
>
> > I am indeed a native speaker of English. I challenge ANYONE to tell
> > me that "I'm being well" is not a correct English sentence!
>
> Plenty of things in English are arguably 'correct' - in that you wouldn't be
> able to find printed anywhere a specific rule stating that the sentence is
> grammatically wrong. But 'correctness' is only half of what matters when
> speaking/writing a language. "I'm being well" is not idiomatic as part of
> Standard English in any major English-speaking country.

Who ever said it was? *I* sure as hell didn't. But "I'm GOING well"
is not exactly something you'd expect to hear every day either.
CONTEXT is EVERYTHING. Like I said, if you were putting on a play and
someone was acting as a lawyer, the "lawyer" could ask if he was
"being" a lawyer well. To which the askee could respond "you're being
it well". Of course, "you're DOING (it) well" or "you're acting (it)
well" are probably more LIKELY answers. But, why the hell mightn't
someone say, "you're being it well" or "you're being good at it"?
Just because something isn't heard EVERY day, that doesn't make it
incorrect. The Hindu said "I'm being well" is NOT an acceptable
English sentence. I've just proved him wrong, as I've proved many
wrong throughout the history of my time at the AUE. I'm being it VERY
well, as matter of fact, if I do say so myself.

It may be used in
> certain dialects, and I would expect some pidgin varieties.
> But it's the sort of thing that would instantly give you away as being not a
> native speaker of garden-variety English.

If used in everyday language repeatedly? Yes. If used once in a
while and/or in certain contexts or for emphasis? No. It's no
different than hearing something like the word "asinine" or something.
 Just because it's not something you hear EVERY day, that doesn't make
it incorrect to do so. Ditto with things like funner, racist as I use
it, "every little thing that we do, should be between you and I, ***
[I gotta give Xtina Mulan props for actually using the CORRECT grammar
in that song--intelligent Jersey City Nubian Boriqua princess that she
is]" , etc. Just because the moronic majority use it, that don't make
the older, FKA correct forms incorrect all of a sudden.