too = 'either'

[Benjamin Barrett]

This doesn't seem all that odd. I think I've used "too" to mean "either," too.

Looking at "I didn't go too" on GB yields

I'm glad now that I didn't go too. (http://ow.ly/buec3)

He was somewhat stronger than myself, a year older, so in that way he went, without thinking much of myself or that it was strange that I didn't go too. (http://ow.ly/bue97)

I asked Daddy why he and I didn't go, too, (http://ow.ly/buebj)

All three of these share the presence of a positive verb occurring before the negative verb that triggers "either" in formal writing, and all seem less strange than in the presence of a single negative verb. Surely, "too" will eventually replace "either" in this meaning given that the oddity of using "either" as a negative form of "too."

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Jun 10, 2012, at 7:55 PM, W Brewer wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: too = 'either'
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Too (either)
> Jonathan Lighter <<< too = 'either', <Imagine! No Republicans! No Democrats
> too!> Jesse Ventura, CNN>>>
> Wab: Too (either) is a characteristic of Chinese learners of English, an
> interlingual product of Mandarin influence. Not sure, but I seem to
> remember that young Anglophone children also produce too (either), until
> their code becomes more elaborated. Jesse?s code never evolved, apparently.

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