[Ads-l] "said no X ever"

[Peter Reitan]

I associate the form with bits on SNL "news".
________________________________
From: Laurence Horn<mailto:laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: ‎6/‎27/‎2017 8:48
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: "said no X ever"

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: "said no X ever"
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> On Jun 27, 2017, at 4:48 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> =
wrote:
>=20
> In my experience, moreover, the "ever" often gets emphatic stress.

I=E2=80=99ve often heard it without any stress on =E2=80=9Cever=E2=80=9D =
or the rest of the tag.  I assumed the idea was to make it appear like =
other parenthetical tags=E2=80=94=E2=80=9Csaid my sister=E2=80=9D, =
=E2=80=9Csaid the Washington Post=E2=80=9D, or whatever=E2=80=94while of =
course the function is to cancel the entire preceding statement in the =
manner of retro-NOT or ironic "I *don=E2=80=99t* think=E2=80=9D.  Those =
last two, on the other hand, are indeed always stressed.

When it=E2=80=99s a retort rather than a cancellation, so that the =
utterer of =E2=80=9CSaid no one ever=E2=80=9D is distinct from the =
utterer of the previous claim, there of course has to be stress, but =
even then I haven=E2=80=99t noticed that it=E2=80=99s the =E2=80=9Cever=E2=
=80=9D that gets an unusual amount of stress. =20

Too bad it appears to be on its way out, so it=E2=80=99s harder to find =
corroboration or disproof for our competing claims. =20

LH=20
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> On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 9:00 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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>> On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 4:36 PM, Jonathan Lighter =
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>=20
>>> I don't believe I've ever heard it without the emphatic "ever."
>>=20
>>=20
>> I have the same feeling, FWIW. Maybe I've simply never noticed it =
without
>> the "ever."
>>=20
>> Youneverknow.
>>=20
>>=20
>> --
>> -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
>>=20
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>=20
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> --=20
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the =
truth."
>=20
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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