no one/no body

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 11/23/2000 3:26:04 PM, ADS-L at HIGHLANDS.COM writes:

<< I wonder if no
one and nobody exhibit the same interpretation >>

Offhand I'd guess "no"--but I haven't read the Bolinger article.

Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?
Will nobody rid me of this meddlesome priest?

No one knows the trouble I've seen.
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen.

I ain't got nobody, and nobody cares for me.
I ain't got no one, and no one cares for me.

The only difference I can discern here is formality: "I ain't got no one"
sounds like mixed registers to me. If the "somebody/someone" difference
really is what Bolinger says it is, it makes sense that the semantic
difference would not carry over to the negative, since the closeness of that
which does not exist seems a sort of contradiction in terms or at least
virtually irrelevant. Well, I guess I could see a slight potential difference
between "Will none of y'all rid me of this meddlesome priest?" and "Will no
person in the world rid me of this meddlesome priest?"--but NOBODY/NO ONE
does not, for me, convey that distinction.