"all but" = all of; a mere"

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:54 PM -0800 3/5/08, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>You're probably right: negative concord is required. Otherwise it
>sounds quite literary - to me anyway.
>
>   JL

Seems like positive exceptive "but" (= 'only') typically occurs in
fixed copular formulae or proverbs:  "He is but a child/babe",
"That's but the tip of the iceberg", "Life is but a dream", "Beauty
is but skin deep".  Of course these have that literary feel too, and
often these "but" versions are dwarfed by their counterparts with
"just".

LH

>
>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Laurence Horn
>Subject: Re: "all but" = all of; a mere"
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>
>>"Didn't take me but three days" would be an absolutely everyday
>>utterance 'round here. Probably in Crawford as well.
>>
>>  JL
>
>Ah, but that's negative concord "but". The question is whether you,
>or the Crawfordite, could say "It took me but three days to read it."
>That's the one I was assessing as old-fashioned or high-register.
>(In fact, the development of the exceptive "but" within and without
>supervening negation is interesting and complicated enough to have
>had at least one book written about it, by Terttu Nevalainen).
>
>LH
>
>>
>>Laurence Horn wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: Laurence Horn
>>Subject: Re: "all but" = all of; a mere"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>At 6:40 PM -0300 3/5/08, David A. Daniel wrote:
>>>Why should we be exercised about a usage of "all but" (which should,
>>>apparently, have been "all of") by someone who follows it with "three days
>>>to red the book" (yes, original says "red", not "read"). So, guy writes "red
>>>the book," we think it's a typo; guy writes "all but," it is a linguistic
>>>event. Balderdash. Let us be a little more circumspect and a little less
>>>alarmist about what constitutes potential linguistic evolution vs. what
>>>constitutes a blunder.
>>>DAD
>>
>>I don't see "all but three days" here as a blunder on the level of
>>"red" for "read" (the latter of which is only a typo if the writer
>>otherwise consistently spells the past tense of "read" as "read").
>>(Note also "with its level diffculty".) If "all but" is, as I
>>suspect, neither a typo nor a malapropism, it may be a blend of "all
>>of" with "but" itself, which wouldn't be out of place (although it
>>might be a mite old-fashioned) in the given context.
>>
>>LH
>>
>>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>>>Jonathan Lighter
>>>Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 4:59 PM
>>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>Subject: "all but" = all of; a mere"
>>>Have seen this before in undergrad writing; don't know just when:
>>>
>>>  2006 Amazon.com Customer Review
>>>[http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0613279085?showViewpoints=1]: At the
>>>age of 30(6 years ago) i bought a copy of the book AND the cliffs notes to
>>>help me through the difficult dialogue. i found this to be a page turner. it
>>>took me all but three days to red the book-even with its level diffculty.
>>>
>>>  JL
>>>
>>>
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