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done
DCHP-2 (Aug 2012)
1followed by a noun or noun phrase
denoting completed action, e.g. be done dinner, be done my homework.
Type: 5. Frequency — Solid reports exist that point to a higher discourse frequency of be done + noun phrase, such as I am done dinner, I am done my homework in Canadian English. While the construction, which is often called "perfective done", is a minor feature, it is sometimes in these marginal areas that Canadian English exhibits different behaviour. Yerastov (2012: 427) states that the construction "occurs in many dialects across Canada, but overall it seems to have marginal status in American English", where be done with dinner etc. would be the unmarked form (for another case of preposition deletion, with verb take up, see Dollinger 2016). Boberg (2010: 166) confirms the Canada-US split, as "unlike most Americans, Canadians can also use a nominal complement with done, as in I'm done my breakfast". Chambers (qtd. in Yerastov 2012: 427) found that "Canadians generally find [the construction] acceptable".
See: anymore
Hypotheses point towards an extension of perfective done from Scots or Scottish English (Chambers in Yerastov 2008: 1). Be done + NP is attested in eastern Vermont as well as in all of Canada, which might point towards import of the construction with the Loyalist migration following the American Revolution from 1776, a migration that peopled Ontario and parts of Quebec and the Maritimes. From there, the construction may have travelled across the country. Other parallel cases of late 18th-century input and legacy terms exist in the low-back vowel merger (Dollinger 2010: 196-204) and positive anymore (Chambers 2007). If the link to Scottish-American migration is correct we have two cases: while positive anymore is recessive, perfective done has spread and expanded and may well become a distinct Canadian marker.
Quotations
1994
"I told my wife, if they don't come out by the time we're done dinner I'm going over there," he said.
2expression — informal
done like dinner, to be utterly defeated.
Type: 5. Frequency — The expression is attributed to different people. See the 1979 and 1980 quotations. The AND (s.v. "dinner" (2)) lists done like a dinner with the same meaning from 1847 in Australian English. Today, the frequency in Canadian English is much higher than elsewhere, as seen in Chart 1.
Quotations
1946
They refused a vote on the offer in full knowledge they faced defeat in their own plans to go the limit. The Steelworkers' Union in this plant is done like a dinner. Now the leaders solicit help from their CCF friends in Ottawa.
1954
After all, it's deucedly unfair to end every game by chasing the referee to the streetcar. One of these times a ref is going to be caught without a ticket, and he'll be done like a dinner.
1979
The ice was slushy and, at the end, Trudeau fitted a Tiger Williams' description. Done like dinner. Even his bald spot was wet.
1985
Could it have been only three games ago, right here in the Argonaut lair, that the running game was being declared null, void, dead, done like dinner and otherwise extinct in the Canadian Football League?
1990
Halloween is the time for ghosts, goblins and ghouls to take centre stage and create havoc - but some of the younger crowd demand equal time among the mayhem. When T. J. Lyttle, 4 and Erin McKie, 5 set their eyes on the poor stuffed soul on the front lawn of 29 Laurel Cres., he was done like dinner. And he had the ketchup on his chest to prove it.
2002
Brian Mulroney drove the Tories into the ground and Kim Campbell couldn't do anything to restore it. Mike Harris drove the Tories into the ground and Elizabeth Witmer, she's just another Kim Campbell. The Tories are done like dinner.
2007
When the leaves start to change and harvest winds down, many gardeners run out of steam. It's over for another year, they're thinking, done like dinner.
References
- AND
- Yerastov (2012)
- Yerastov (2008) • Article
- Chambers (2007)
- Dollinger (2010) • Article (pre-proofreading)
- Boberg (2010)
Images
