_everybody didn't know_

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sat Oct 8 14:03:31 UTC 2011


On Oct 8, 2011, at 2:49 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 12:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee.
>
> This was spontaneous? I didn't know.
>
> Some putz once speculated that BE speakers must misinterpret this
> advertising slogan, given that the double-negative doesn't make a
> positive for them.
>
> Of course, that's entirely correct. The perspicacity demonstrated is
> absolutely astonishing.
>
>
Well, if they really wanted to discourage BE speakers (or white speakers from Alabama, West Texas, and other such places) from buying their product, they could have changed the slogan to

Doesn't nobody like Sara Lee.

LH

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