too = 'either'

[Charles C Doyle]

Moving the "too" farther from the negative does help.  I too, like Jonathan, could never use "too" in place of "either."

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 10:07 AM
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Might as well put on record the fact that this use of 'too' in place of
'either' strikes me as being as weird and unfathomable as positive
'anymore,' even if others find it unremarkable.

JL

On Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 11:33 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: too = 'either'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
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> > 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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