Sure don't

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:04 PM -0700 7/31/07, Montgomery Michael wrote:
>Dear Larry
>
>Belated thanks for the link to the Atlantic story.
>The usage sure isn't restricted to either Texas or to
>"don't."  I've heard "sure don't," "sure isn't," and
>"sure hasn't" all my life, in various parts of the
>South (mainly the Kurathian South Midland).  I'm not
>so sure about "sure won't or "sure can't."  I can
>think of contexts for them, but right off only in
>response to negative statements.  Let me think about
>this.
>
>The fact that Lise found it prevalent among locals in
>southern Illinois suggests South Midland to me.
>
>Michael

I'd be surprised if it didn't (those are two real negatives!) happen
with "sure can't".  Joan, is there data on this assembled for the
eventual "sure" entry?

LH

>
>
>--- Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail
>>  header -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society
>>  <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: Sure don't
>>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  At 2:20 PM -0500 7/31/07, Scot LaFaive wrote:
>>  >I asked, "Do you have any maps?"  She said, "We
>>  sure don't."
>>  >
>>  >While reading some reports at work I came across
>>  this construction a few
>>  >times. I'm familiar with using "sure" as an adverb
>>  when the answer is in the
>>  >affirmative ("Yes, we sure do."), but not
>>  otherwise. The writer is probably
>>  >an L2 speaker (her L1, if not English, would
>>  probably be Spanish). The
>>  >supposed speaker of "We sure don't" is in Texas.
>>  Anyone know if this is a
>>  >regional construction in Texas?
>>  >
>>  >Scot
>>  >
>>
>>  Not just Texas, I'd guess, but general Southern and
>>  [South?] Midland,
>>  unless I miss my guess.
>>
>>  Michael Montgomery and I just happen to have had an
>>  exchange on this
>>  topic last week.  With what I hope is his
>>  non-objection, I'll
>>  reproduce Michael's question here and my response,
>>  of possible
>>  interest for the reference to the cute (if somewhat
>>  ill-informed)
>>  piece in the Atlantic I cite below by the humorist
>>  Ian Frazier.  The
>>  cartoon in the piece is especially nice.
>>
>>  LH
>>
>>  [MM:]
>>  >With regard to regional negatives that sometimes
>>  >perplex, I have long wondered how much of a role
>>  >intonation might play.  Twenty years ago Lise Winer
>>  (a
>>  >Canadian) told me that when she went to
>>  SIU-Carbondale
>>  >to teach, she was confused by "I sure don't" being
>>  >expressed with the same intonation as "I sure do."
>>  >She had been used to the two having very different
>>  >patterns, but when she would ask a salespeople if
>>  >their shop had a certain product and got the
>>  response
>>  >"we sure don't" with a high falling contour on
>>  >"don't," she was mystified.  Do you think this
>>  might
>>  >be a Midlandism?
>>
>>  [LH:]
>>  I think so; I've come across it both in person and
>>  on screen (big and
>>  small) representations and at first was very
>>  confused, until I
>>  recognized what it was doing.  What I couldn't
>>  figure out is if it
>>  was intended as a garden path (helped along by the
>>  parallel
>>  intonation you mention), an attempt to be cheerfully
>>  polite, or
>>  something else.
>>
>>  Googling it, I find a reference to "The Positive
>>  Negative" in an
>>  Atlantic Monthly piece by Ian Frazier from June
>>  1997:
>>
>>  We sure don't!" The last word is spoken with a
>>  rising inflection, as
>>  if the expression were a positive one ending with
>>  the word "do".
>>  http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jun/frazier.htm
>>
>>  (Despite the reference to "a rising inflection", I
>>  suspect this is
>>  the very same intonation you refer to as a "high
>>  falling contour".)
>>  Frazier refers to the "Sure Don't Bakery" and more
>>  generally to the
>>  'border into "sure don't" America'.
>>
>>
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