3V0880.01 Using “shame on you” (cf. notes of 6/16) (6/20/80)

Last night at supper, Peggy clambered into Robby’s chair while he was
in the kitchen. He returned, touched her on the head from behind the
chair and asked what she was doing in his chair. Peggy pushed away his
hand saying, “Shame on you.”

Miriam notes this phrase as a new element in Peggy’s repertoire. A day
or two ago she lay down on a sleeping bag Peggy had been using as a
cushioning for her “exercises” (She imitates Miriam’s
“beat/beat/straddle”). Peggy doesn’t like to have Miriam use things to
which she can make any claim, so told her to go away. When Miriam
moved over to the edge of the sleeping bag, Peggy was still dissatisfied.
She came to Miriam and pushed her, saying “Shame on you.”

We conclude that what[ever] Peggy’s motive for her prior rehearsal of
“Shame of you”, the result brought this idiom of unusual syntactic form
into Peggy’s repertoire in such a way she applied it to show jointly
annoyance and an implicit command to desist (accompanied by
physical gestures).