Talk:what's with

Tea room discussion[edit]

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You'll often hear school kids in Australia say What's with you? to mean What's wrong with you? How can we include that sense in with? ---> Tooironic 23:08, 17 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to me like a two-parter.

For (deprecated template usage) with that seems like too narrow a usage example. I think the sense of with is something like "in relation to":
- What's up with the new banner? / What's with the new banner?
- What's happening with the health-care vote? / What's with the health-care vote?
In this usage with is unstressed.
But there is also a usage in which with (or its object) is heavily stressed (as I hear it in the US), which may be the same as what you are referring to. I think it is not exactly "wrong with", but perhaps someone else can find wording for this sense of with.
- What is with him lately?
- What's with him?
It may be that (deprecated template usage) what's with should be considered an idiom. It seems like a specialized interrogative pronoun, like {term|wherefor}}, possibly on the way to becoming a compound spelled solid. DCDuring TALK 11:24, 18 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

When a multi-word expression doesn't come close to fitting into a real PoS or a Proverb, I punt and call it a Phrase using {{infl}}. This one seems like it might also belong in Category:English idioms and Category:English non-constituents. DCDuring TALK 00:11, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]