Re: [ADS-L] The N-word at the tim e of Huck Finn

Arnold Zwicky zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
Thu Mar 12 17:24:06 UTC 2009


On Mar 12, 2009, at 8:25 AM, Ron Butters wrote:

> The prevailing LIBERAL attitude was patronizing
> at best, and there was hardly a white person alive before 1950 who
> did not hold
> views of African-Americans that would not be viewed as racist today.
>

not a contribution to the substantive content in this thread, but a
note on the form of the "there was hardly ..." clause, which i take to
be overnegated.  i would axe the second negation, to give:
   there was hardly a white person alive before 1950 who did not hold
views of African-Americans that would be viewed as racist today.

arnold

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