7.939, Disc: not really

[The Linguist List]

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-7-939. Thu Jun 27 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  49
 
Subject: 7.939, Disc: not really
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu> (On Leave)
            T. Daniel Seely: Eastern Michigan U. <dseely at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Associate Editor:  Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
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Editor for this issue: dseely at emunix.emich.edu (T. Daniel Seely)
 
---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date:  Wed, 26 Jun 1996 13:52:01 EDT
From:  mccullo4 at pilot.msu.edu ("Andrew S Mccullough")
Subject:  Disc:  Not really
 
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Wed, 26 Jun 1996 13:52:01 EDT
From:  mccullo4 at pilot.msu.edu ("Andrew S Mccullough")
Subject:  Disc:  Not really
 
While I have not followed all of the discussion re:  not really, I was drawn to
the discussion by the interchange between Charlie Rowe and Mex Butler,
responding to D. Ganelin and the sentence "He's not just real sick."
After asking a few colleages to respond to that version and the following,
"He's just not real sick" we all agreed with the Mex Butler view that the
former 'not just real' = more than real sick, in fact deathly ill.  To say that
a person is not very sick, we needed to change the word order to "He's just not
real sick" where 'just'is modifying 'not'.  For us the syntax makes the
difference, and the word order 'not just' means beyond 'just sick' to extremely
sick.
 
Andrew S. McCullough
Graduate Assistant, English Language Center
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
(517) 353-0800
mccullo4 at pilot.msu.edu
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