(neither) nor

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Sat May 19 13:43:41 UTC 2007


On May 8, 2007, at 9:05 AM, i wrote:

> On May 8, 2007, at 8:24 AM, i wrote:
>
>> On May 8, 2007, at 7:25 AM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>>
>>> Has anyone ever heard this kind of phrase sans "neither":
>>> "Kent Smith nor anyone from that office was present . . . ."
>>> The meaning was clearly "neither KS nor anyone else ...."
>>
>> lovely.  surely there are more cites to be found.
>
> and so there are.  OED (draft revision 2003), 2.b. under nor conj.1,
> has examples without the other negative expressed...

> i'd guess that there are vernacular examples out there that escaped
> the OED's readers.

now, from the Advocate, 6/19/07, p. 30:

"I, nor my management, have ever had any kind of problem with
creating a gay character..."

--Actor THOMAS DEKKER, writing on his MySpace page about rumors that
he was pressured to drop out of _Heroes_ because his character was
gay...

-----

arnold

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