too = 'either'

[Jonathan Lighter]

"And no religion either."

Why would it matter if there's an allusion to Lennon's identical gaffe?
People are using "too" when they mean "either."  I almost reported a
parallel ex. a few weeks ago, but decided it was probably an idiosyncrasy.
I don't think it bore any resemblance to the lyrics of "Imagine."

Unfortunately I can't recall it now, but it wa someting like, "And they
don't do it too."

JL

On Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 8:08 PM, 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: too = 'either'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jun 10, 2012, at 7:52 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > You guys don't get it, do you?
> >
> > In your exx., "too" still = 'either.'
> >
> > JL
>
> I still don't see why it's any different from Lennon's, which I also
> immediately thought of:
>
> [no [thing to kill or die for]] and [no religion] too
> [no Democrats] and [no Republicans] too
>
> Yes, in both cases "either" is generally the suppletive negative polarity
> form that steps in for "too" within the scope of a negative, but if it
> doesn't, the meaning is still the meaning.  Lennon's excuse was the meter
> ("and no religion either" doesn't fit nearly as well metrically) and the
> rhyme--
>
> Imagine there's no countries
> It isn't hard to do
> Nothing to kill or die for
> And no religion too
>
> --and Ventura's was the allusion to Lennon.
>
>
>
> LH
>
> >
> > On Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 7:44 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU>
> >> Subject:      Re: too = 'either'
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>  Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >>> At 6/10/2012 04:25 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>>> CNN promotes Gov. "Jesse Ventura's" scheme to abolish political
> parties:
> >>>>
> >>>> "Imagine! No Republicans! No Democrats too!"
> >>> Why can't I understand this as too = 'also'?  "No Democrats also"?
> >>>
> >>
> >> I agree; it looks to me like an obvious riff on the song "Imagine":
> >> "Nothing to kill or die for / And
> >> no religion, too."
> >>
> >> Jim Parish
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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