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Old 12-06-05 | 04:12 AM
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Placid Casual
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From: SoCal
Originally Posted by Serendipper
...And for the knockout...
It is generally regarded that one cannot use the word 'be' as an adverb. This is false.
Old English used this commonly as daily speech, and it carried over into the American South, where the speech was more 'English" than in the North, hence the drawl ( a courtly convention). African slaves picked up these anacronistic forms of speech and, lacking mobility, modified less that Southerners in communique with the novel speech of the 'Yankees'.

"We like to chill at the park."
"We be chillin' at the park"
"We will be chillin' at the park."
"We chilled at the park"

These are all proper examples of the use of 'be' as a modifier of tense.
So next time, don't be hatin' O.K.?
What has any of that got to do with the use of the word "be" as an adverb? In every example in which you use it, "be" is a verb. An auxiliary verb, but a verb nonetheless.
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