(neither) nor

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On May 19, 2007, at 6:57 AM, i quoted an example of "NP nor NP"
lacking "neither":

> I would like it to be known by everyone, that I have played a gay
> character three times before in my career, one when I was twelve
> (which is on youtube), one when I was fifteen, and another when I was
> seventeen. I, nor my management...

today i thought to try searching on {"I nor" -neither} and got four
good examples in the first 50 hits (of a great many, including many
irrelevancies).  it looks like "neither"-less disjunction is more
common in the vernacular than i would have thought:

I nor any of my members can log on IPB Bug Reports.
forum.forumer.com/showthread.php?p=408461
[this is the entire entry]

(by Photography Steve Bennett (313), Atone Pain Tribe ( I nor 313
participated nor performed for this show. I just did photography for
it)., ...
www.bmezine.com/ritual/group/atone001.html
[note double use of "X nor Y"]

I, nor my host, nor my file server, nor my ISP are responsible for
what you do with the patches and ROM images found on this site. ...
agtp.romhack.net/legal.php
[beginning of entry]

... once visionary and creating positive change, their anger has
overcome them, and they are no longer people that I, nor many others
are willing to follow. ...
lwn.net/Articles/202590/

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since we've been collecting variants of disjunction, i'll also
mention "nor X nor Y", with the first "nor" serving where "neither"
would be expected.  the OED's subentry 6 for "nor" has this one,
marked as poetical and literary, and the google webhits seem to
confirm this stylistic judgment: unlike "I nor Y", where the relevant
hits are all vernacular, "nor I nor Y" pulls up piles of distinctly
poetical hits.

arnold

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