[Ads-l] Heard: different syntax in an ad

Margaret Winters mewinters at WAYNE.EDU
Sun Jul 9 07:37:03 UTC 2017


They have slightly different meanings, I think.  When "everything" is used with negation on the verb (the less usual utterance), focus is on what doesn't don't work (everything) rather than on the verbal expression of not working.

On a bus from Tallinn to Tartu in Estonia for the Cognitive Lx conference,
Margaret

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 9, 2017, at 2:14 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> "Absolutely everything doesn't work for you."
> 
> I'd say,
> 
> "Absolutely nothing works for you."
> 
> Otherwise, meh.
> 
> -- 
> -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

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



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