Positive anymore still once again

[Roger Shuy]

To add a bit of history, maybe.

About thirty or more years ago, at one of the early NWAV meetings (when we
still held them all at Georgetown, where NWAV started), I, as usual, had a
houseful of speakers staying with me. One of them was my good friend, Bill
Labov. The five or six people staying with me always had long discussions at
my home after the meetings ended, often going into the wee hours. At one of
these, I made a  comment something like, "Anymore we have some really good
talks at NWAV." The room went silent, then Bill asked me about this
construction, which was so native to me that I didn't have a clue about why
the rest of the room was amused, or surprised, or something. I believe this
discussion was a stimulus to the following ongoing research on positive
anymore. The rest is history.I still use it unabashedly and I still can't
figure out why others are amused, surprised or something. Sounds just fine
to me.

Roger

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