Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 17:52:00 CDT

From: Tom Murray TEM[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]KSUVM.BITNET

Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 30 Mar 1995 to 31 Mar 1995



Natalie Maynor's comments on her classes's responses to the use of positive *an

ymore* are interesting for a number of reasons, not least because so many of th

e students (about 50%) deny using it or hearing it. In my work on the construc

tion (reported in Frazer's _Heartland English_), I think I mentioned the same t

hing: When asked directly, numerous people deny using it . . . even say it sou

nds "strange"; then they turn around and use it in a sentence! I continue to b

elieve that positive *anymore* is one of those constructions that sneaks into p

eople's language without them realizing it, maybe like the *need + [p.p.]* usag

e in, for example, "the car needs washed."