Monday, May 16, 2016

Meaning of "Killing someone dead"


I've heard this sentence recently in season 1 episode 1 of the TV show "13 Reasons Why" at about 18:05:



If you don't improve your language, I will kill you dead.



What does “Killing someone dead” really mean?


Note: This is often spoken in America. I've found no any satisfactory solution to this query on the web.



Answer




killed him dead is a colloquialism/regionalism in English.


We do say things like:



... and the outlaw shot the sheriff dead.



where dead is a complement describing the nature and effect of the action, shot, upon the sheriff.


Davy Crockett should be sufficiently merkun to serve as a quintessential example of its use in American English.


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