[Ads-l] neither/either avoidance

[Wilson Gray]

> Just another sign of the End Times.

As Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, once put it:

"Thou hast said it."

On Sat, Nov 11, 2017 at 12:16 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> > sounds affected or literary in a way inappropriate for normal
> conversation
>
> Just another sign of the End Times.
>
> JL
>
> 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
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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

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