For the past several years I have heard people use the term "went missing" as in "Mrs. Brown went missing on Wednesday evening" or "my dog went missing after we were hunting". This sounds incorrect to me. It also sounds like Mrs. Brown, or my dog, chose to be missing. When I started reading it in the Sun-Herald newspaper, published in Biloxi, Mississippi, I got very curious! Is this correct terminology?
I hear a lot of it where it means 'become.' went wild, go loud, went bright, go crazy - anything.
I've heard it for years, long enough that I don't question it any more....if I ever did, for it sounds like one of those useful constructions that I can't diagram but fit the situation. I'll bet it's etymologically related to "go AWOL".
To my ear, the "missing" in "went missing" sounds like an adverb, despite the spelling. In the same way, when I "go to work", you can think of "to work" not as an indirect object but as an adverb; the same with "go on vacation", "go to school", "go home", "go ape" and so on. It's just a theory.
Julie A. Nelson said:
For the past several years I have heard people use the term "went missing" as in "Mrs. Brown went missing on Wednesday evening" or "my dog went missing after we were hunting". This sounds incorrect to me. It also sounds like Mrs. Brown, or my dog, chose to be missing. When I started reading it in the Sun-Herald newspaper, published in Biloxi, Mississippi, I got very curious! Is this correct terminology?
I appreciate the feedback, gentlemen. Living in Kiln, Mississippi, and hearing natives refer to it as "The Kill", has also begun to sound normal to me........sigh.
I sympathize regarding the odd local pronunciation of local place names. But for what it's worth, I grew up in the Midwest, and even back in grade school I was taught that artists pronounce that word "kill". Go figure.