too = 'either'

[Jonathan Lighter]

That last was meant for Joel but somehow went to everyone.

"And also no Democrats!" sounds slightly, not absolutely, weird. Less weird
than "No Democrats too!"

JL




On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 11:05 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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."
>> >
>> >------------------------------------------------------------
>> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."
>



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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org