a locus classicus for fronted "anymore"

[Wilson Gray]

Anymore, I hear it all around me since moving to the Wyoming Valley
region of NE PA (Greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Metro Area), on both
sides of the Susquehanna.

-Wilson

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: a locus classicus for fronted "anymore"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 11:27 AM -0400 8/19/09, Lynne Miles-Morillo wrote:
>>The quotation from the Times is  an instance of fronted negative
>>anymore, but I think *positive* fronted anymore is a particularly
>>interesting thing to hear, and this usage thrives around here
>>(central Indiana) in sentences such as
>>
>>Anymore, we all pump our own gas.
>>
>
> My hypothesis (not explicitly formulated) is that because the fronted
> "anymore" is not in the scope (or, more technically, the c-command
> domain) of the negation in examples like the Duluth one from the
> Times ("Anymore, the airlines don't want to take the risks"), no
> speakers would find that one possible who wouldn't accept yours as
> well (or cf. "Anymore, the auto makers are willing to accept the
> risks")  Certainly, there are a lot of speakers who would never say
> either one, and there are a lot (although a smaller numer) who could
> say either, but are there speakers who could utter/accept the fronted
> negative (Duluth) example but not the fronted positive ones?  There
> are certainly speakers who get positive "anymore" (e.g. D. H.
> Lawrence's example from _Women in Love_, "Suffering bores me any
> more") but can't do the fronting.  This is why I was saying earlier
> that the fronted _anymore_ speakers are a proper subset of the
> positive _anymore_ speakers.  If there's someone who can get the
> Duluth example but not e.g. "We all pump our own gas anymore", my
> hypothesis is falsified.
>
> LH
>
>
>
>>
>>
>>On Aug 19, 2009, at 10:12 AM, Alison Murie wrote:
>>
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>>>-----------------------
>>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>Poster:       Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
>>>Subject:      Re: a locus classicus for fronted "anymore"
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>I may have posted on this before.  I first heard positive "anymore"
>>>from a neighbor in Shelton, WN, in 1947 (which neighbor had moved
>>>there during the war from  rural MO).   I was startled by what, to me,
>>>was a novel use. I had grown up in Lincoln NE & Chicago North Shore.
>>>My older brother began using it after living many years in Portland,
>>>OR.  Go figure.
>>>AM
>>>
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--
-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.
-----
-Mark Twain

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