Don't let's

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/17/2008 10:59 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>Did Bette want to deny intention (not "grammatical" for me), or
>>request prohibition ("grammatical" for me; and perhaps LH hears it
>>the same way, since he wrote "beseeches")?
>
>No, as mentioned below, I never get "don't let's X" as a request for
>prohibition; that can only be "don't let us X".

Nor do I -- although since I would not ever say "don't let's", I
might find it hard to get it in any context.

>As I mentioned, I understand *all* instances of "don't let's X" as a
>variant of "let's not X", a speaker urging his or her interlocutor(s)
>to agree to refrain from Xing.  In Noel C's case, ...

Thanks for the clarification of Noel's -- uh -- intention.  I am
reminded that Basil Fawlty did not follow Noel's suggestion.

Joel

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