"Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee"

[Wilson Gray]

Naturally, you are correct, as usual, dInIs. It's only that this is the
first and only time that I have ever heard this particular construction
used in real life as opposed to its use as an attention-grabber in the
old commercial. A minor quibble: wouldn't "grammatical" be a better
descriptor than "standard"?

How do you feel about a structure like "doesn't anybody ...?" Many
times, I've heard constructions like, "She's so mean and evil that
*can't anybody* stay with her." I considered them to be both
grammatical *and* standard - "can't nobody" would be non-standard -
until I heard a lecture in which Haj Ross pointed out that such
constructions are peculiar to BE. [And perhaps to other non-standard
dialects? Haj didn't say and I don't know.]

-Wilson

On Jun 8, 2005, at 10:36 AM, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Nobody doesn't like Sarah Lee"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Perfectly standard multiple negation; now, if she had said "Doesn't
> nobody want to be...." that would have been a complete makeover of
> another sort.
>
> dInIs
>
>
>
>> Heard on today's Maury Povich Show, spoken by a woman who'd had a
>> complete makeover: "Nobody doesn't want to be with me, now!"
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>
>
> --
> 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
>