Date:  Mon, 3 Apr 1995 08:15:27 MST

From:  Jim Venis <jimv%ccmailgw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IHS.COM>

Subject: Re: Positive Anymore



   Expressions including "might could" and "might ought" were not

   uncommon in the suburbs between Dallas and Fort Worth when I lived

   there in the early 1980s. --Jim





______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________

Subject: Positive Anymore

Author: American Dialect Society <ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga.cc.uga.edu> at Internet

Date:  3/31/95 8:38 pm





Although I still remember the first time I heard positive "anymore" and

remember wondering why the person who used it was talking in such a strange

way, I had thought since then (mid '60s) that it was on the increase and that

most people had at least heard it by now. They haven't. The topic arose in

my sociolinguistics class this morning, and I was surprised that

approximately 50% of the students had never heard it at all (none of my

students admitted to ever having used it). One student couldn't decide

whether she had or hadn't heard it from her husband, who "is from New

York and says all kinds of strange things." Several students didn't

understand what "anymore" meant in the example sentence I gave them. They

all understood what "I'm not reading many novels anymore" meant but said

that "I'm reading lots of novels anymore" didn't make any sense. Since my

dialect doesn't include positive anymore, I was afraid my example might be

wrong, so I had them look at the examples on p. 296 of Chaika. They found

it funny that she uses asterisks by the double modals on p. 297 (except

for the first sentence, which she obviously made an error in -- "can

might" for "might can") but that she doesn't put asterisks by sentences

like "Things are getting busier for me anymore." Almost all

of my students would call that sentence non-English but would call "You

might could see him" normal.

  --Natalie (maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ra.msstate.edu)