failures of parallelism

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:37 PM -0700 7/5/04, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>i've been collecting examples where parentheticals, postnominal
>modifiers, and coordination set things up for what are, on reflection,
>errors.  these include cases of "determination by the nearest" (in
>agreement and government) and several kinds of failures of parallelism
>in coordination.  here's a new type of example, involving the
>triggering of negative-polarity "any":
>
>(NYT Week in Review, 7/4/04, p. 6, "Strange Bedfellows: 'Imperial
>America' Retreats from Iraq" by Roger Cohen)
>-------
>It was a low-key exit, reflecting problems that Mr. Bremer, and perhaps
>any American, could not resolve.
>-------
On the free-choice reading I just alluded to, here's one that doesn't
involve a conjunctive blend:

Not that defending one's country is the job of a film critic, but I
would think any
American couldn't help but feel a little defensive after watching this film.

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section=12&screen=news&news_id=33015

(re Lars von Trier's "Dogville", if you're curious)

L