[Fwd: can/can't]

[Mai Kuha]

It does seem strange. I was actually going off on a whole nuther tangent, though, wondering whether in informal speech it's possible for the listener to know that "can't" was uttered, rather than "can". I sometimes overhear people asking each other: "Did you say CAN or CAN'T?" Are there many dialects where these two forms are distinguishable because of the vowel or something?

-Mai

On Sat, 22 July 2000, "Donald M. Lance" wrote:

> Oh me oh my, surely the underlying presuppositions can't be the same. When one utters
> "I'll see if I can't do X," is one setting out to demonstrate that one is incapable of
> doing X or unwilling to do X?
> DMLance
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> From: Mai Kuha <mkuha at altavista.com> said:
>
> Can "can" and "can't" be distinguished in that context? I thought they sounded (almost) identical.
>
> -Mai
>
> On Fri, 21 July 2000, "Donald M. Lance" wrote:
>
> > And then there's "I'll try and see if I can't do that."  My stock response, when
> > opportunity occurs, is "Why don't you try to see if you CAN do it?"
> > DMLance

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