another meaning reversal

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:51 PM -0400 5/22/10, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>... like "he could care less".

Interesting.  Only three other hits for the hyponegative "with so
much as a peep" (i.e. the positive form with negative meaning), all
in legal/political contexts, compared to 91,400 for "without so much
as a peep".  So (some will say thankfully) no threat yet to the gold
standard of hyponegs, "could care less" or "that'll teach you".

LH

>This from the Volokh Conspiracy blog:
>
>>Yet in /Graham/, federal law was invalidated with so much of a peep
>>from the SG's office.
>
>"So much as a peep" is a reference to non-action by the Solicitor
>General, so the usual use I would have expected is "not so much as a peep".
>
>http://bit.ly/dB597Z
>>There has been not so much as a mention of teh essay on the /Weekly
>>Standard/ or /National Review/ sites; there has been not so much as a
>>peep from AIPAC, which Beinart explicitly attacks.
>
>VS-)
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org