Merely a matter of taste?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Or,  "They haven't done anything *except* drive me crazy."

  Or did the context rule that interpretation out?

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Merely a matter of taste?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think that, insofar as I have a problem with the original statement,
that problem is the slight ambiguity in it:

1) All of their actions, taken as a whole, have driven me crazy
[If they had stopped after doing X, I would have had no problem with them]

2) Each of their actions, taken individually, has driven me crazy
[Whatever they've supposedly done for me, I have a problem with them]

I think that the speaker had (2) in mind. Or not. :-)

-Wilson

On 8/22/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: Merely a matter of taste?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sounds perfectly standard to me.
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Merely a matter of taste?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The plaintiffs list what they'e done for the benefit of the defendant.
> The defendant replies:
>
> "All they've done is drive me crazy."
>
> In the context in which this was spoken, I would have expected:
>
> "_The only thing they've done_ is drive me crazy."
>
> Nevertheless, what was actually said somehow seems to verge upon
> "correct" for me.
>
> --Wilson
>
> There's only one thing that money can't buy and that's poverty.
>
> --Jack Benny
>
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--
There's only one thing that money can't buy and that's poverty.

--Jack Benny

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