[Ads-l] neither/either avoidance

[Wilson Gray]

> The word “neither” sometimes sounds affected or literary in a way
inappropriate for normal     > conversation.

How does "(n)either _one_" sound?

On Sat, Nov 11, 2017 at 12:05 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I have a definite dispreference for “neither” though I don’t think I would
> go that far in avoiding it. The word “neither” sometimes sounds affected or
> literary in a way inappropriate for normal conversation. Certain
> constructions like “neither of them” don’t sound too bad but often can be
> avoided by using “either” with a negative verb.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
> > On 11 Nov 2017, at 05:30, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > Ivan Watson, CNN:
> >
> > Both sides were not able to come to [sic] a time for a bilateral meeting.
> >
> > Normal:
> >
> > Neither side was able to come up with a time for a bilateral meeting.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 8:31 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> <mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Call me crazy, but I've noticed that CNN employees don't want to use
> these
> >> words.
> >>
> >> Ex.: a short time ago a correspondent in South Korea spoke of Northern
> >> threats to test missiles near Guam and detonate an H-bomb over the
> Pacific.
> >> He said,
> >>
> >> "Both of those things have not happened yet."
> >>
> >> Somewhat similarly, instead of saying, "That hasn't happened either,"
> the
> >> almost universal preference is, "That hasn't happened as well."
> >>
> >> While perfectly understandable, these constructions sound as weird to me
> >> as positive "anymore" once did.
> >>
> >> JL
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-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

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