frightened by solecism

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:10 PM -0400 4/10/02, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>Could your pharmacist be a prescriptivist? "... in fact, he sent us
>>several new ones."
>
>Drugs is drugs.
>
>dInIs
>
>
>
>
>>I phoned my pharmacist today and the pharmacist said, "Your doctor didn't
>>send us no new prescription for you."
>>

dInIs,

A judgment needed here.  Can you really say (wearing your best
negative concord hat)

Your doctor didn't send us no new prescription for you--he sent us
several new ones?

I'd predict (in fact, I do predict, in various writings) that this
sentence should be impossible, in the same way as its standard
English counterparts

#Your doctor sent us no new prescription(s) for you--he sent us
several new ones.
#Your doctor didn't send us any new prescription(s) for you--he sent
us several new ones.

as opposed to, say,

Your doctor didn't send us ONE new prescription for you--he sent us
SEVERAL new ones.

or maybe even

Your doctor didn't send us A ([ey]) new prescription for you--he sent
us SEVERAL new ones.

both of which are possible (as instances of "metalinguistic
negation"), if perhaps somewhat cutesy.

larry