[Ads-l] Facebookery: positive _anymore_

[Wilson Gray]

> Do you happen to know if the full context indicates that “it”, whatever
it was, is being          > viewed negatively?

I don't often have the context. But, when I do, it's the full one😜:

This was an exceedingly unfortunate episode. In March, 2017, the young man
whose story is described was experiencing a mental crisis. His family made
the mistake of calling the police to help control him. When police arrived,
the officers tased him. But when he got up and charged them, this time they
fired off 16 rounds, hitting him 14 times. It seems to be a fairly common
occurrence _anymore_, families calling the police for help with their
loved ones,
and then seeing their family members gunned down right in front of their
eyes.

On Fri, Aug 3, 2018 at 9:37 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> > 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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