"This ruling doesn't _only_ affect patients."

[Laurence Horn]

And there's a big difference between the two.  For me (and others I've checked), in cases in which the "not only" is focused and precedes the main verb, as in "We not only sing", it can't be a complete sentence but needs a continuation/correction.  This is even clearer when the "not only" is fronted with inversion:  "Not only do we sing" can't be a complete sentence, but needs a follow-up--"Not only do we sing but we sing well".   Neither of these focused constructions is possible (for me) with "just":

They're not {only/just} engaged.
They not {only/*just} are engaged (…they're living together)
Not {only/*just} are they engaged (…they're living together)

One more difference: the "not only p (but q)" construction, especially in the focused cases, can't be used when q is incompatible with p:

They're not just engaged, they're married.
#They not only are engaged, they're married.
#Not only are they engaged, they're married.

She's not just/?only an assistant professor, she's a full professor.
#Not only is she an assistant professor, she's a full professor.

YMMV.

LH

On Jul 4, 2014, at 8:16 AM, Margaret Lee wrote:

> I remember the Archie Bell and The Drells' lyric as 'We NOT only sing...'
> 
> --Margaret Lee
> 
> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
>> Sent: Monday, June 30, 2014 9:35 PM
>> Subject: "This ruling doesn't _only_ affect patients."
>> 
>> 
>> When, back in the '60's, I heard fellow-Texan Archie Bell of The Drells say,
>> 
>> "We don't _only_ sing"
>> 
>> I thought, "Wow! 'Only'? That's weird! He should have used 'just' in that
>> environment!"
>> 
>> Somehow, after a half-century, "doesn't only" / "don't only" in place of
>> "... just" *still* sounds "wrong," somehow. This doesn't rise to the level
>> of a pet peeve, but it does jar. Why, I wonder.
>> 
>> Youneverknow.
>> 
>> -- 
>> -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/
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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