Date:    Sat, 14 Mar 1998 18:33:12 -0500
<br>From:    Beverly Flanigan  flanigan[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: standardization of non-standard forms
<br>
<br>Thank you, Larry and Frank, for clearing up a great mystery!  As I think
<br>about it, the structure seems similar to the use of reverse form in tags:
<br>"It's a nice day, isn't it?".  This reversal is very hard for some second
<br>language learners of English to master, esp. when the base sentence is
<br>negative and the tag positive: "He didn't do it, did he?" which is
<br>answered: "Yes" [=he didn't].  One of my Japanese students learned to add a
<br>full sentence after every such affirmative, because he knew we'd be
<br>confused otherwise.  "So don't I" seems to be related also to the
<br>rhetorical affirmative "Don't I though?" after something like "You look
<br>very happy."  I'm curious now about what follows a negative:  "The Colts
<br>don't want this one.  So do the Pats [=not want it].  Not credible, of
<br>course, but might this work?!
<br>
<br>
<br>At 06:02 PM 3/14/98 -0500, you wrote:
<br> Larry Horn said:
<br> 
<br>   I haven't gone through all my messages, so I don't know if someone else=
<br> 
<br> responded to Beverly on this, but the answer is yes, "So don't I" =3D 'So=
<br>  do
<br> I'.  It's essentially New England, as Labov said, and not all of New
<br> England.  Someone from DARE probably knows the distribution, but it's at
<br> least extant here in Connecticut and in Massachusetts.  I've seen it in
<br> novels (labelled as local to some part of New England) and in one memorab=
<br> le
<br> headline from the early 1970's in the Boston Globe:
<br> 
<br>         THE COLTS WANT THIS ONE?  SO DON'T THE PATS
<br> 
<br> As seen here, it always follows a positive and the negation is pleonastic=
<br> =2E
<br> Whether there's a different construction found after negatives I don't
<br> know.
<br> 
<br> Larry  
<br> 
<br> *************
<br> 
<br> And as a transplant to New England from the Midwest (I moved to N.E. in
<br> 1978), I can attest to having heard this use of the negative for jocular
<br> effect, and being struck by it.  I had not encountered it in all my years=
<br> 
<br> (27 or so) in the Midwest.
<br> 
<br> Frank Abate
<br> OUP US Dictionaries
<br> 
<br>