3V0317.01 Temporal advancement of “thank you” to a command. 12/05

NO “THANK YOU” — Peggy’s use of the pattern has proved transient. She no longer says anything when given my pipe or a cookie or whatever. But the passing of the phrase was marked by an interesting transition shown in only a single incident: Peggy wanted some particular thing (what it was escapes me) which I had; she held out her hand with her “impure point” to me and said /øaen/. By a sort of temporal advancement, the verbal courtesy “thank you”, which was merely associated with the act of receiving a given thing, was transformed into an articulate word of command, i.e. “give me that thing I want.”

The holophrase “Here”, meaning “Pay attention to me and take this thing I am giving you” has reached a permanent position in Peggy’s repertoire. Her vocalization is most commonly /thae/ with a falling intonation — when she holds out an object, offering it in her ‘giving’ protocol. Peggy’s vocal accompaniment to giving occurs more frequently than it is omitted.

RELEVANCE — These notes document the transience and permanence of two different ur-phrases in Peggy’s repertoire. The “Here” ur-phrase, one of command, remains. The “Thank you” has disappeared with a single incident occurring where it was promoted to a commanding function.
– How else does Peggy get us to do what she wants?
– The most common want of me is “pick me up.” Peggy earliest showed me this want by taking hands and moving them under her armpits. Now more commonly, she crawls over and stands up, wailing, by holding onto my pants leg.
– Frequently, once she gets into my lap, her more specific objective is to twist away from me and seize whatever may be in reach on my table.

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