Date:    Thu, 23 Apr 1998 10:57:13 -0500
<br>From:    "Donald M. Lance" <engdl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SHOWME.MISSOURI.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: P.S. on banshees
<br>
<br>>Correction:  I just altered the search command on Nexis and came up with
<br>>two additional cites (besides the Pell-Safire one), one from the Orlando
<br>>Sentinel in 1991 (quoting an environmental sculptor) and one from the
<br>>Chicago Tribune in 1990 (quoting the village manager of Bolingbrook, Ill.).
<br>>It's possible, of course, that these four instances are all isolated ones,
<br>>with each speaker performing his (they're all male) own reanalysis of "Xing
<br>>like banshees", but it's also conceivable that the expression has in fact
<br>>shifted in langue rather than parole for some variety of English.  Any
<br>>guesses?
<br>
<br>IMHO, The transfer of 'banshee' from one kind of "frenzy-verb" to another
<br>is a normal linguistic process that doesn't have to be "learned" from
<br>someone else and doesn't have to be dialectal (regional, social, ...).  I'm
<br>sure I've heard "working like a banshee" and have a picture of a carpenter,
<br>hoe-hand, cotton-picker, or some other physical laborer working so fast
<br>that his/her movememnts appear to be frantic.  "Screaming like a banshee"
<br>is accompanied ny ph/frenetic or frantic movement as well.  I think I might
<br>even use "banshee" with a variety of verbs to evoke such an image -- maybe
<br>because of the Celtic (mostly Welsh) blood that roils along with the
<br>Teutonic plasma in my arteries and veins.
<br>
<br>DMLance
<br>