the curious grammar of Ohio

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:47 PM -0700 10/28/04, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>My DARE's not handy, there's a positive "anymore" in there from the
>1920s.  IIRC, I sent a slightly earlier cite to OED a year or so ago.
>
>Nothing in my undergraduate experience had prepared me for positive
>"anymore" when I came to Tennessee in the '70s.  Needless to say,
>everybody seemed to be using it.
>
>I still don't use it myself, partly because I'm still unsure how to
>screw it into a sentence.
>
>It took a few years to figure out how to use "might could," but
>positive "anymore" is a far greater challenge.
>
>JL
>
Here's the new (2002) OED draft entry under "any more", replacing the
old (1st and 2d edition)  entry at "more" (ADV. C4a).  Definitely
Ulster., and as you see my memory of the positive anymores of Madison
is buttressed.  And it's nice that the Lawrence cite is preserved.

Larry

  1b. Chiefly Irish English and N. Amer. colloq. In affirmative
contexts: now, nowadays, at the present time; from now on.

1898 Eng. Dial. Dict. I. 63/1 [Northern Ireland] A servant being
instructed how to act, will answer 'I will do it any more'.
1903 McClure's Mag. Dec. 215/1 There's just only this one any more.
1920 D. H. LAWRENCE Women in Love xiii. 167 'Quite absurd,' he said.
'Suffering bores me, any more.'
1938 J. STUART Beyond Dark Hills x. 319 You know, Jesse, any more I
don't worry a great lot.
1961 T. MURPHY Whistle in Dark in Plays (1989) IV. II. 47 We'll
squeeze Michael a bit. He'll chip in anymore.
1973 Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) 14 Mar. 2/1 Any more, the
difference between a white collar worker and a blue collar worker is
simply a matter of shirt preference.
1979 Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ontario) 20 Nov. 1/3 Everything we do
anymore seems to have to be done in a big hurry.
1996 C. I MACAFEE Conc. Ulster Dict. 7/1, I think it'll be fine any more.