Final call for papers: ADS 2008 Chicago

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:11 PM -0400 8/7/07, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>Jenny Cheshire had an article some years ago on this same punctual use of
>"never" by kids in Reading, I believe (not at hand now).

One version of her work is in her paper in the collection _Negation
in the History of English_, a 1998 Mouton compilation edited by
Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Gunnel Tottie, and Wim van der Wurff.
(I reviewed the volume, whence my memory of the piece.)  Cheshire's
contribution to the volume, the one sociolinguistic paper it
contains, is called "English negation from an interactional
perspective", and does indeed, as Beverly mentions, consider the
discourse conditions on the use of "never" as a negator for single
past events in the speech of Reading teens.

LH

>I think I recall
>hearing it too, most commonly in strong denial situations like the one
>Wilson suggests.  Maybe it's not nonstandard for most people but just
>colloquial.
>
>At 03:38 PM 8/7/2007, you wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: Final call for papers: ADS 2008 Chicago
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>I have to go with Ron on this one. When we moved up to Saint Louis
>>from Texas, we were struck by the ability of white neighbor kids,
>>ca.1940, to use "No, I never!" for "No, I didn't!" as well as for "No,
>>I never have / haven't (ever)!"
>>
>>-Wilson
>>
>>On 8/7/07, RonButters at aol.com <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       RonButters at AOL.COM
>>>
>>Subject:
>>=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20=A0=20=A0=20=A0=20Re:=20[ADS-L]=20Final=20c?
>>>                = =?ISO-8859-1?Q?all=20for=20papers:=20ADS=202008=20Chicago?=
>>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  In a message dated 8/7/07 11:30:19 AM, preston at MSU.EDU writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>  > For
>>>  > example, "never" is apparently standard in "I never went there" for
>>>  > "At no time in the past did I got there" but nonstandard for "I
>>>  > didn't go there."
>>>  >
>>>
>>>  So "standard" American English has some kind of punctual-versus-eternal
>>>  aspect? Not for me, I think (maybe for young guys such as Dennis), is
>>"I never went
>>>  there" 'standard' for either case, though I could say it informally whether
>>>  my meaning was 'I have never gone there' or 'I didn't go there at the
>>time that
>>>  instant in time that is at issue in our conversation." If someone says
>>to me,
>>>  "I never went there"--whether it is Dennis, Arnold, Frank, or some totally
>>>  vernacular speaker, I cannot know, except for context, whether the time
>>>  described is punctual or eternal.
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>--
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>-----
>>                                               -Sam'l Clemens
>>
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