query about an isogloss (pos. "anymore")

[Dennis R. Preston]

Perhaps at least a half-bevy.

dInIs

>>Southern Southern Illinois (the bottom 1/4 to 1/3) is too Southern to
>>be in the heart of positive anymore land, especially the fronted
>>examples.
>>
>>dInIs
>
>Hmmm... But wouldn't Carbondale host a bevy of students from
>[Northern-or- Mid-]Southern Illinois who would have fronted?
>
>L
>
>>
>>>We've discussed the (apparently growing) range of positive "anymore"
>>>on the list in the past, and it's clear that we're not just in Kansas
>>>anymore, or even the midwest more generally.  (There is, for example,
>>>the evidence of Joe Benigno, WFAN sports radio host and echt New
>>>Yorker, that I've cited on the list.)  But one place I *don't*
>>>associate it with is insular small towns in Maine, and I was thus
>>>struck by a couple of occurrences of fronted (and hence non-polarity)
>>>"anymore" in Richard Russo's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic novel
>>>_Empire Falls_ set in the (fictional) town of that name.
>>>
>>>Here are two examples, transcribed more or less accurately from the
>>>audiotape of the book:
>>>
>>>"She put the three cushions down on seats only a third of the way up
>>>the bleachers because anymore her feet always hurt from standing all
>>>day."
>>>
>>>"Anymore, all he wanted to do was jack off to the porn he downloaded
>>>off the internet"
>>>
>>>I see that (according to his bio for his 2004 Colby College honorary
>>>degree) while Russo grew up in upstate NY (also not what I think of
>>>as true "anymore" country--at least Rochester certainly wasn't in the
>>>1960s) he got his PhD at Arizona State and has taught at Penn State
>>>and Southern Illinois (the last of which is definitely in the heart
>>>of positive "anymore"-land, while the first two may be at least
>>>partly in the zone) before coming to Colby (Waterville, Maine) in
>>>1991.  Could it be that Russo absorbed the construction as a ruralism
>>>somewhere along the way, possibly in Carbondale (but maybe earlier in
>>>Tempe), and unconsciously put it in the mouths of characters who have
>>>never been out of Maine?  (Actually, as the two passages make clear,
>>>the "anymore"s in question are not actually *uttered* by the
>>>characters in question but associated with them in style indirect
>>>libre; at least in this novel, Russo--while not using a narrator as
>>>such--presents most scenes from the point of view of a particular
>>>character.)  Or am I wrong about Maine? I'm pretty sure not one of
>>>Stephen King's Maine-bound locals, whatever their Down East
>>>colloquialisms, have ever let a positive "anymore" past their lips,
>>>or I'd have noticed.
>>>
>>>Larry
>>
>>
>>--
>>Dennis R. Preston
>>University Distinguished Professor
>>Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>>        Asian and African Languages
>>Wells Hall A-740
>>Michigan State University
>>East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
>>Office: (517) 353-0740
>>Fax: (517) 432-2736


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736