Query re ANYMORE

[Beverly Flanigan]

Strangely, my Webster's New World doesn't even list 'anymore', either as
one word or as an extension of 'any'!  But all the usages below are OK for
me, except possibly the first one.  However, if I split the word in No. 1
(i.e., with a pause in speaking or a space in writing) and stress 'more', I
might accept it: "He never remarried any MORE."  That's how I read the
foxhunt sentence too, mainly because you spaced 'any more'--deliberately or
not?  In fact, I often have a problem deciding whether to pause (or space)
words like this; what do others do?

In any case, I have no problem with the "again" meaning of these, or with
the "still" meaning of "He doesn't live here anymore."  If Minnesota,
Mississippi, and Tennessee agree, perhaps this usage isn't regionally
restricted?  How about the Northeast, Larry and Alice?

At 10:49 AM 4/13/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Dear ADS-Listers:
>
>Is anyone familiar with _anymore_ as used in the sentences below?
>This might seem to be the garden variety of the adverbial since
>it apparently occurs only in negative contexts, but the sense
>here ("again, from now or then on") is one that does not appear
>in the OED or DARE (or any of several other dictionaries I have
>consulted).  Part of what is unusual is the type of verb in
>these (i.e. punctual) in these sentences, which are from the
>speech of the Smoky Mountains of TN/NC.  I'd be grateful for any
>comments or other attestations.  Perhaps there's a good lexico-
>graphic reason why they are not to be found in dictionaries,
>but I do not seee it.  They're perfectly idiomatic to me.
>
>Michael Montgomery
>U of South Carolina
>
>
>He never remarried anymore.
>
>I said "Leery, if you say that anymore to this horse, I'll jump
>on you."
>
>He never did come back to the fox hunt any more.
>
>I didn't live here anymore after that until about twenty-one
>years ago.
>
>There was very little whiskey made back in there anymore.


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm