Decontextualized positive "that"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Nov 2 12:51:52 UTC 2013


Rings a bell:  "*as* smart as that" sounds more familiar, but I can't
imagine when I heard it last.


JL



On Sat, Nov 2, 2013 at 2:09 AM, hw gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       hw gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Decontextualized positive "that"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Sounds more like Tweedledee. Tweedeldum isn't that smart."
>
> During The War, we children - the fight against calling immature
> people "baby goats," like the fight against calling a house a "home,"
> had not yet been lost - were taught,
>
> "It sounds more like Tweedledee. Tweedeldum isn't so smart as that."
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come
> from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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