Re: anymore (was: Re: the surprise that is at me...)

DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
>
> From: "dirk elzinga"
>
> > lots of late '60s radical political stuff mixed in with not very
> > serious linguistics; it's a historical curiosity anymore
>
> but
>
> > like the old Laugh-In, the jokes just aren't funny anymore
>
> A detour: "anymore" in an affirmative sentence makes my idiolect cringe. I
> first heard this usage back in university, and balked at it then, but
> greater exposure made it something I accepted, but never internalized. I
> haven't heard this in quite a while, but here it is again. In a negative
> sentence, piece o' cake, but in an affirmative sentence, I'd opt for "these
> days" or some such. Is this just my idiolect, or something more "back East"?
> Other Northeast speakers?
As a New Englander, I'm not even sure what it would mean..."it's a
historical curiosity anymore" would mean to me "it's a historical
curiosity now" I would think, although my first reaction would be that
the writer forgot to put in a "not" somewhere.  But I wouldn't say it's
just your idiolect that doesn't permit it; I've never heard it spoken
before, and if I've ever seen it written I probably wrote it off as a
mistake -- or didn't even notice it, assume it to be a negative
sentence.

Nicole
--
nicole.eap@snet.net
http://nicole.conlang.org
--

"I had never realized that the whole purpose of converting to Buddhism
was to show off how enlightened you'd become."
-Andrew Koller