anymore

Neal Whitman nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET
Sun Apr 3 21:41:02 UTC 2011


As a strictly negative-polarity "anymore" speaker, I can only get the matrix-clause scope, with "can't believe". Nothing O'Conner writes suggests we are supposed to get a lower-scope reading.

Neal

On Apr 3, 2011, at 3:48 PM, "Gordon, Matthew J." <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Gordon, Matthew J." <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU>
> Subject:      anymore
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is "I can't believe that you're hungry anymore" really standard? That's the claim made by Patricia O'Conner here:
> http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/04/anymore-3.html
>
> I'm a positive anymore speaker, so I can't tell, but I would think that this usage would only be standard if the 'anymore' applied to the main clause, which isn't the first reading I get.
>
> -Matt Gordon
>
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