[Ads-l] Facebookery: positive _anymore_

[Laurence Horn]

> On Aug 3, 2018, at 9:13 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> "It seems to be a fairly common occurrence _anymore_.”

Yup, that one is definitely a positive “anymore” (with “common”, as opposed to "rare”).  The example is interesting for the geography; South Florida is by no means in the heart of positive “anymore” country, although the construction has been spreading somewhat.    Do you happen to know if the full context indicates that “it”, whatever it was, is being viewed negatively?  That would favor the “anymore" for many speakers.  So, for example, “Wild Alaskan salmon is really expensive anymore” might be more likely than “Wild Alaskan salmon is really popular anymore”.  (I assume both sentences are fine for all speakers with “nowadays” in place of “anymore” and with the same intended meaning.) 
> 
> Writer is from and still lives in South Florida, where he's a lawyer.
> 
> BTW, FWIW, here in NEPA, the same people who use positive also use
> negative. I'd kinda wondered about that.

As far as I know, speakers who accept/use positive “anymore” also use it in negative contexts.  

LH
> 
> "That's not going to happen, anymore!"
> -- 
> -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