[Ads-l] Is this easier to parse for others than it is for me?

[Jonathan Lighter]

I wonder if this is a "neither-nor" problem. I recently alluded to the
"possessive relative" problem. (Possibly not what you think.)

In other words, command of syntax may be crumbling.

Hey, no worse than losing all those Old English case endings!

JL

On Sun, Aug 12, 2018 at 10:12 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> Laurence Horn wrote:
> > Tonight on NBC Nightly News, anchor Kate Snow summarized an
> > incident in which an entire parking lot suddenly collapsed into a
> >sinkhole.  One woman had been sitting in her car when it happened,
> > but Snow reassured viewers:
> > “Luckily, she and no one else was injured”
> >
> > It’s clear what was intended:  Luckily, neither she nor anyone else
> > was injured.  But I couldn’t say it the way Kate Snow did, with the
> > negation in “no one else” extending over the “she” in the first conjunct,
> >and I can’t remember if I’ve heard it before.  I trolled the web for
> similar
> > examples, and sure enough I found a few almost identical ones.
> >  Note that the presence of “luckily”, “fortunately”, or “thankfully”
> blocks
> > the compositional interpretation (as in “she and no else was responsible”
> > = she was, nobody else was) that is much more widely attested.
>
> Here is an similar instance in 2003. A criminal suspect named Mark A.
> LeBreton surrendered to authorities. Neither he nor others were
> injured during the surrender.
>
> Date: December 18, 2003
> Newspaper: Worcester Telegram & Gazette
> Newspaper Location: Worcester, Massachusetts
> Article: LeBreton arrested in N.Y. - Alleged shooter will face charges
> in Worcester
> Author: Chris Echegaray
> Quote Page A1
> Database: NewsBank Access World News
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Mr. LeBreton's father, Leo A. LeBreton, formerly of Leicester, was
> relieved to hear that his son had surrendered peacefully.
> "This was the best out of the bad," he said from his South Carolina
> home. "We are obviously happy that he and no one else was injured."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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