Positive anymore caught in the wild

[Dennis Preston]

Wilson,

The great Japanese sociolinguist and dialectologist  Takesi Sibata
(he was a phonemic speller, as you can see) said that the most
noticeable things in language are the ones you don't do yourself.

dInIs

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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: Positive anymore caught in the wild
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>You're right , dInIs. There was definitely no comma intonation in her
>speech. I put one in only because I learned to punctuate that way in
>some otherwise-forgotten English-grammar class of my youth. And, even
>so, I didn't put in the comma till after I had studied over it. Well,
>as folk say, "You study long, you study wrong." (I've come across this
>as "You think long, you think wrong." As Richard Pryor once eloquently
>put it: "Unreal. And I ain't going for it.") She definitely said:
>
>I bruise really easily anymore ...
>
>It was the best positive anymore that I ever heard. There was a point
>in my life when such a sentence would have been indecipherable.
>They're still good for a laugh. Speaking of laughing, it's funny how
>the peculiarities of the speech of others sound so strange, whereas
>the peculiarities of one's own speech merely sound normal. Cf., e.g.
>people who pronounce "ten" as "tan" instead of as "tin."
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 8/12/07, Dennis Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: Positive anymore caught in the wild
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  Wilson,
>>
>>  Are you sure about the comma between "easily" and "anymore"? I
>>  haven't observed it in such speakers (assuming it means a
>>  characteristic junctural intonation fact).
>>
>>  dInIs
>>
>>
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>>  >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  >Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>  >Subject:      Positive anymore caught in the wild
>>  >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  >
>>  >Spoken by my wife, a native of the Wyoming Valley of the Suquehanna
>>  >River in NE PA:
>>  >
>>  >_I bruise really easily, anymore_, so I have to be careful about
>>  >bumping into things.
>>  >
>>  >-Wilson
>>  >--
>>  >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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>>  >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>>
>>  --
>>  Dennis R. Preston
>>  University Distinguished Professor
>>  Department of English
>>  Morrill Hall 15-C
>>  Michigan State University
>>  East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>--
>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
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org