a locus classicus for fronted "anymore"

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:41 AM -0400 8/22/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>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

Indeed, that's good "anymore" country, as is western PA.  You won't
here "Anymore, we all pump our own gas" if you cross the Delaware
into NJ, because state law there prohibits it.  ;-)

LH

>
>On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  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:
>>>
>>>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>-----------------------
>>>>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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