_everybody didn't know_

[Jonathan Lighter]

An advertising slogan spontaneous? Surely you jest!

JL

On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 10:03 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: _everybody didn't know_
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Oct 8, 2011, at 2:49 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 12:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee.
>>
>> This was spontaneous? I didn't know.
>>
>> Some putz once speculated that BE speakers must misinterpret this
>> advertising slogan, given that the double-negative doesn't make a
>> positive for them.
>>
>> Of course, that's entirely correct. The perspicacity demonstrated is
>> absolutely astonishing.
>>
>>
> Well, if they really wanted to discourage BE speakers (or white speakers from Alabama, West Texas, and other such places) from buying their product, they could have changed the slogan to
>
> Doesn't nobody like Sara Lee.
>
> LH
>
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