"Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee"

[Wilson Gray]

dInIs,

Constructions like "can't nobody" are so ubiquitous that I simply
assumed that there had to be a corresponding "proper-English" form, to
wit, "can't anybody," especially since "can't anybody" was used by my
late father, LlB, later JD, from the University of Wisconsin, and is
still used by my mother, MPSW from Washington University in St. Louis.
That is, their speech patterns had to have been influenced by the
"proper English" of white people in environments in which there were no
other black people to talk to. Hence, if my parents used "can't
anybody," then "can't anybody" must be "proper."

If I may use the Jeff Foxworthy series now being telecast by Comedy
Central as my source, I can state without fear of contradiction that
your intuition that the "can't nobody" construction is not unique to BE
is unequivocally correct.

-Wilson

On Jun 8, 2005, at 5:07 PM, 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 Sara Lee"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Wilson,
>
> I've also always assumed that "Can't anybody..." is also nonstandard,
> although its uniqueness to AAVE is very questionable.
>
> Note that interrogative "Can't anybody/somebody" constructions are
> pure whitebread dandy (like that better than "standard"?), so let's
> not hear from nobody about them. We ain't talkin bout them.
>
> dInIs
>
>
>> 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
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African
> Languages
> A-740 Wells Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824
> Phone: (517) 432-3099
> Fax: (517) 432-2736
> preston at msu.edu
>