negation + coordination, again

[Laurence Horn]

Here's another one for the files, which also touches on the any...not
we were discussing earlier:

[A]t this stage of the investigation Roughtwood-or indeed anybody
else-was not a prime suspect
-P, D. James (2005), The Lighthouse, p. 180

LH


At 11:13 AM -0700 6/18/06, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>caught 6/15/06 on NPR's Morning Edition (though i can't find it on
>the site; maybe it was a local bit), from a scientist being interviewed:
>
>-----
>
>No pauses [in RNA/DNA transcription] are accidents, but are serving a
>very important role.
>
>-----
>
>the second conjunct is to be interpreted with some sort of universal
>subject, like "all (pauses)", but the subject in the first conjunct
>is, alas, negative.  this is a lot like the example from GWB that we
>discussed here in september 2004:
>
>-----
>
>... a decision no president would ask for, but must be prepared to make.
>
>-----
>
>and perhaps related to this case from a paper draft i got from a
>student in may 2005:
>
>-----
>
>A computer is a machine; it cannot understand the sense of the words,
>but only apply formulas to sentences.
>
>-----
>
>and likely related to the "comp-set" reference in an example we
>talked about here that same month (since the complement of the null
>set is the universal set):
>
>-----
>
>...not everyone was in favor of the agreement, including council
>member Yoriko Kishimoto. [YK was against the agreement.]
>
>-----
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org