Those pesky negatives (revisited)

[Mark A. Mandel]

dInIs wrote:

        >>>

>         My Michigan neighbors, who say something that
>sounds like "sacks" to me (when the say "socks") are often
>misunderstood (since "I've got a hole in my sacks/socks" are both
>pragmatically likely). But their "I got cot by the police" is rarely
>understood by me, since, although 'cot' is a fine, high-frequency
>word, it won't fit the syntax. And, of course, when they say "I shet
>my pants," have no trouble at all, since I lack the lexical item
>"shet."

Did you mean "rarely {mis}understood"? If not, I can't follow your argument.

-- Mark A. Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]