I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying

[Alice Faber]

Grant Barrett writes:

>New York Post writer Gersh Kuntzman tries to stir up baseball rivalry
>between Atlanta and New York, and has this interesting line:
>
>"And do you think they mention New Coke? As we say in New York, I'm not
>saying, I'm just saying."
>
>http://www.nypost.com/news/15720.htm
>
>
Larry Horn adds:

> and the wider context of the article
> ==================
> It starts at one of the main tourist attractions, The World of
> Coca-Cola, a "museum" dedicated to the city's most-famous
> product and Earth's most-popular soft drink.
> But nowhere does the exhibit explain, for example, that the
> original formula included cocaine, an oversight that George W.
> Bush would certainly appreciate.
> And do you think they mention New Coke? As we say in
> New York, I'm not saying, I'm just saying.
> Instead, we're treated to a gallery of Coke advertisements over
> the years and a photos from around the world...
> =====================
> doesn't really help.  Is anyone--New Yorker or otherwise--familiar with
> this construction?  Is there a specialized intonation?  Does it work with
> other verbs than "saying"?  Inquiring minds want to know...

Michael Gottlieb replies:

> I hear the "I'm not saying" phrase as similar in intonation to "Not for
> nothin'" (with appropriate shoulder action and neck tilted to the side, a
> la Joe Pesci) and the "I'm just sayin," as it might be heard at the
> beginning of a sentence.  The intonation seems unique to the phrase--not
> as if it were simply a shortening of a longer sentence, such as, "I'm not
> saying (you're ugly or anything), I'm just saying (you're very
> unattractive)."  The intonation of that shortening would be very
> different.

It sounds very New York, I can't even read the sentence without my left
shoulder twitching, and I have to restrain the arm from gesturing. It sounds
like something you'd hear in one of those kvetchy comedy routines, perhaps in
"I'm not Rappaport". I can hear it in a dialog, a la "what are you implying?"
"I'm not implying, you're inferring".

> Usually the missing pieces of information implied by each
> phrase are essentially the same, but the second is modified and, perhaps,
> less conclusive.  As, in this case, "I'm not saying there's a massive
> conspiracy to cover up the improper history of the Coca-Cola factory, I'm
> just saying there's something very fishy going on..."  Or whatever you
> take it to imply.  I've only heard it from New Yorkers.  I haven't heard
> it with anything else and I don't think it would work with anything else,
> because of its specific use--to relieve one of responsibility for a
> potentially loaded (or insulting) statement.  I think.

This sounds pretty right.

Alice