[Ads-l] positive anymore

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Sun Feb 26 00:02:56 UTC 2017


The first of those examples is not positive. "Too X to Y" strongly* implies
"not Y".

The second example is a genuine positive *anymore*, true to Bujold's native
Midlands dialect: she was born in Columbus, Ohio, and lived in the state
till 1995, when she moved to Minneapolis. (
http://www.dendarii.com/biolog.html, page of autobiography) She has at
least once used the *modal + past participle* construction in her
characters' dialogue, as in "The shirt needs washed." (Made-up example.)

*Claimer*: I am a serious fan of Bujold's *Vorkosigan* and *Chalion* series
and have all her books in both. While I can't give a citation for the
example above, I know I have seen it, stumbling over it every time I reread
whichever book it's in. (My native region is New York City.)

* But cancellably. "I was too tired to go on, but somehow I managed to get
the last three crates stacked before going inside to collapse on the
couch." (Made-up example.)

Mark, ῥότικος despite his Noo Yawk origin


On Feb 25, 2017 2:50 PM, "James A. Landau" wrote:

https://books.google.com/books?id=Wmgy9ORrC1cC&
printsec=frontcover&dq=komarr&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYq9b__
qvSAhWFWCYKHfl6AcsQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=anymore&f=false

  _Komarr_ Riverdale NY: Baen Publishing Enterprises,1998 ISBN 0-671-87877-8
page numbers are from the first hardback edition

page 12 "But she was abruptly too weary to try anymore."

page 158 "I'm afraid these domes give me claustrophobia, anymore."

    Jim Landau

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



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