too = 'either'

[Jonathan Lighter]

Joel,

Yes, to me 'either' = "too" is extremely peculiar, though obviously
unambiguous.

I'll admit that I didn't make the connection with the song, but that
doesn't matter because Lennon's usage just pushes the weirdness back a
generation.

Even "[And] also no Democrats!" sounds weird to me. "And no Democrats!"
however, sounds fine.

The strangeness may come from the seeming redundancy of "and" plus "too."
> Besides which, "No Republicans! No Democrats *either*!" surely would
mean "No Republicans. *And* no Democrats", not "No Republicans *or*
no Democrats".
I'm not sure I follow this. All I can say is that the underlying message
was the abolition of political parties. Thus, no more Republicans *and* no
more Democrats (either).

Jon



On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 6:02 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: too = 'either'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jon,
>
> I'm now thoroughly confused by your original message (below) and most
> of the rest of the chain.
>
> Were you saying that Jesse's comment means "either", and "too" =
> 'either' is peculiar (or worse)?
>
> I agree with the latter, but I disagree with the former.  I see the
> utterance (CNNs?) as meaning "also, and" -- that is, what was said
> could have been phrased "And no Democrats (also)" or "Also no
> Democrats".  As I took virtually all of the other examples of "too"
> to mean "and".
>
> Besides which, "No Republicans! No Democrats *either*!" surely would
> mean "No Republicans. *And* no Democrats", not "No Republicans *or*
> no Democrats".
>
> I'm beginning to feel that understanding this is essential to my
> evaluating candidates' statements and positions before I vote in the
> fall elections.  :-)
>
> Joel
>
> 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!"
> >
> >JL
> >
> >--
> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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>
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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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