positive polarity "can help it"

[Wilson Gray]

Well said, Mark!

-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



On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 5:18 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: positive polarity "can help it"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The quoted sentence doesn't work for me. To me, "X can help it" has to
> either be negated --
>  She always cries at that song, she can't help it
> -- or be the condition of a negated (preposed) protasis --
>    They won't VP if I can help it.
>
>    Fred's says he's going to tear down the tent.
>    Not if I can help it!
>
> Mark Mandel
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 4:21 PM,  <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
>> What am I missing here? This seems normal to me.
>>
>> In a message dated 1/5/09 4:15:13 PM, thnidu at GMAIL.COM writes:
>>
>>
>>> "People will be playing these games in a hundred years, hopefully...
>>> at least if I can help it."
>>>
>>> Peter Hirschberg, collector and maintainer of old arcade games. In interview
>>> at
>>> http://mindtv.org/cgi-bin/display_asset.fcg?member_id=2090;ordinal=1;file=vod
>>> ind.ttml;style=mind
>>> Near the end, about 4:40 out of 5:04.
>
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