To kill s.o. dead?

[nq:1]Hi, I've just come across that phrase in an article I was reading. Now, there's quite a redundancy there. Is ... can only imagine children spreaking like that. What do you say? Is there a grammatical term for it? Best, Sebastian[/nq]
It's probably a take-off on an old commercial for "Raid" bug spray.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

"it's the network..." "The Journey is

Sebastian Marx:
[nq:1]I've just come across that phrase ("to kill someone dead") in an article I was reading. Now, there's quite a redundancy there.[/nq]
Yes.
[nq:1]Is that correct english?[/nq]
Yes.
[nq:1](Maybe colloquial)[/nq]
A redundancy of that kind would only occur in colloquial English, yes.
[nq:1]I can only imagine children spreaking like that. What do you say?

[nq:1]I've just come across that phrase in an article I was reading. Now, there's quite a redundancy there. Is that correct english? (Maybe colloquial)[/nq]
No-one would write "kill s.o. dead". Well, maybe on USENET or IRC in certain specific contexts, but s.o. is not a generally-known English abbreviation. I had to read it two or three times before I concluded that you must have meant "someon

Spehro Pefhany filted:
[nq:2]I've just come across that phrase in an article I ... do you say? Is there a grammatical term for it?[/nq]
[nq:1]It's probably a take-off on an old commercial for "Raid" bug spray.[/nq]
Might be Southern in origin...I can remember an episode of "Gomer Pyle USMC" where Gomer had been left to look after his sergeant's car and the car was stolen...Gomer kept r

[nq:1]The grammatical construction is the same as the perfectly normal "to shoot someone dead" and having said that, I must add that I don't know what that's actually called.[/nq]
Well, "dead" there is a predicate adjective, predicated to the object of the main verb. Other examples are "I painted it white" & "I sent him away satisfied". "Objective predicate", maybe, with "subjective predicate"

[nq:1]You forget advertisers. It's a famous insecticide slogan: the product in question "kills bugs dead".[/nq]
And similarly in the UK, Domestos bleach "kills all known germs - dead"

David

[nq:1]English, "someone" is never abbreviated to "s.o.". Likewise, "something" is never "sth." Those are things that only non-native speakers write.[/nq]
Hmmm. In your view "Collins Publishers", of P.O. Box, Glasgow G4 0NB, Great Britain, would no doubt be representative of "non-native speakers" then.
They use "sth" as an abbreviation of "something" in their dictionaries. (For "someone" or

[nq:2]English, "someone" is never abbreviated to "s.o.". Likewise, "something" is never "sth." Those are things that only non-native speakers write.[/nq]
[nq:1]Hmmm. In your view "Collins Publishers", of P.O. Box, Glasgow G4 0NB, Great Britain, would no doubt be representative of "non-native speakers" then.[/nq]
There aren't too many native speakers who can understand people from Glasgow.

[nq:2]English, "someone" is never abbreviated to "s.o.". Likewise, "something" is never "sth." Those are things that only non-native speakers write.[/nq]
[nq:1]Hmmm. In your view "Collins Publishers", of P.O. Box, Glasgow G4 0NB, Great Britain, would no doubt be representative of "non-native speakers" then. They use "sth" as an abbreviation of "something" in their dictionaries. (For "someone"

[nq:2]English, "someone" is never abbreviated to "s.o.". Likewise, "something" is never "sth." Those are things that only non-native speakers write.[/nq]
[nq:1]Hmmm. In your view "Collins Publishers", of P.O. Box, Glasgow G4 0NB, Great Britain, would no doubt be representative of "non-native speakers" then. They use "sth" as an abbreviation of "something" in their dictionaries. (For "someone"