Date:  Thu, 4 May 1995 13:33:21 EDT

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: negatives and positives



I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the article (from the last-page "Shouts and

Murmurs") in the New Yorker of 7/25/94. It's called "How I Met My Wife", and

it's by Jack Winter. I don't have a scanner or the time to type it in in its

entirety, but a couple of paragraphs should give the flavor:







  "It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very cha-

lant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my

wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner.

She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was

kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way."

________________  [and so on] ___________________

Winter, as you begin to gather, is fond of both negative polarity items used in

the absence of a trigger and back-formation, and I find the essay particularly

good to give to students as an exercise. The narrator makes bones about things

travels cognito, and sees both hide and hair of things; his maculate appearance

and swerving loyalty makes him, however, something to sneeze at. I recommend

it more than abashedly. (I'm especially fond of the part where he abuses the

young woman of the notion that he's sipid and petuously proceeds--with mitiga-

ted gall--to bunk a few myths about himself.)



Larry