"have ever been"

[Troy]

Hmm - interesting.
My instinct is that Wilson is on to something.
THere's something about that McCarthy quote that has
filtered down through pop-culture and may be
influencing such formulations.

Arguably, there are but a handful of moments when the
American public concentrates on language to an extent
where this could be demonstrated, however this seems
to be one.

Cheers!

--- sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society
> <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "have ever been"
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >On Sep 12, 2006, at 1:04 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> >> "Are you now or have you ever been...?" perhaps?
> >>
> >> -Wilson
> >>
> >> On 9/12/06, Arnold M. Zwicky
> <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> >>> Sender:       American Dialect Society
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> >>> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky"
> <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> >>> Subject:      "have ever been"
> >>>
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> ----------
> >>>
> >>> caught in passing on the radio on sunday, a
> woman talking about her
> >>> enthusiasm for Star Trek: "I am, and have ever
> been,..."
> >
> >but that's the 'at some time' "ever", in an
> interrogative context,
> >where it's specially licensed.  though maybe the
> formula is
> >relevant.  some history would be helpful.
> >
> >arnold
> >
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> I think it's more like 'at any time,' rather than
> 'at some time.'
> (At least if we're talking about the "loyalty"
> formula used by McCarthy,
> HUAC & their ilk.)
> AM
>
>
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