Away to Go in the Southwest of England and in Newfoundland, and the Question of Celtic Analogues

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique
• Main Author: Shorrocks, Graham
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1991
• Subjects: Linguistics and Language; Language and Linguistics; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0008413100014298; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0008413100014298

John B. Smith (1987) recently drew attention to the occasional use of an adverb + infinitive construction in English dialects, and specifically to the non-finite phrase away to go . Joseph Wright included examples of the construction in the English Dialect Dictionary under both away and go , with away to go meaning basically ‘be off, go away, away he went’. Under away (A.5.Phr. away to go ): Warwickshire: Now, then, away to go . Shropshire: Tak’ this an’ away to-go . A young kitchenmaid, describing the depredations of a manservant on the pastry-shelf: It wuz Lucas, ma’am, ‘e comen in out o’ the ‘all an’ took some of the fancy pies an’ away to-go . (Wright 1898, I:100)