positive 'anymore' (again)

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:39 PM -0400 5/2/06, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>At 01:41 PM 5/2/2006, you wrote:
>>On May 2, 2006, at 10:14 AM, Charles Doyle wrote:
>>
>>>Larry, that sentence-initial, sans-negative "anymore" sounds
>>>REALLY odd to me!
>>
>>he only does it to annoy, and because he knows it teases.
>>
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>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>I think Larry even admitted once that he's trying to learn the structure,
>which is not native to him!  But it IS common throughout the (North)
>Midland and is rapidly spreading westward, as we've discussed many times on
>this list.  (Charlie, see our archives on positive 'anymore'.)  It was new
>to me in 1980, coming down from Minnesota, but I suspect it goes a ways
>back.  Its history, anyone?

We've had some discussions on the list that should be archived.
Scots-Irish and regional English, IIRC.  I remember citing the OED
entry (under MORE), and Lawrence's "Suffering bores me any more"
(Birkin, from _Women in Love_), and providing some references,
including

Murray, Thomas E. 1993. "Positive anymore in the Midwest." In Frazer
(ed.), "Heartland" English: Variation and Transition in the American
Midwest. Tuscaloosa: Univ. of Alabama Press, 173-86.

Larry

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