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[Feb. 2nd, 2005|07:50 pm]
Jason
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Apparently positive "anymore" isn't that new or uncommon, but it still sounds remarkably strange to my ear in some constructions. Consider: (from this CNN story about a nude juice bar/movie theater in south dakota) "There's a line between right and wrong," Pulse says. "And it seems like anymore nowadays that line has got all jumbled up." |
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My mother has fallen into a positive "anymore" habit -- it's pretty much standard in the local dialect in way-upstate NY -- and it drives me absolutely insane. Someone should do one of those "pop vs. soda" style maps with positive "anymore" so that language manuals can be strategically para-dropped. Or junk-mailed, I guess.
Hearing that spoken awakes a homicidal urge inside me that I never knew was there.
Zeno Vendler's article about "any" and "all" gets screwed up anymore with this postivive usage.
Slightly other topic -- have you seen the flurry in the TLS about the difference between women drivers (attributive in plural) vs. say lady drivers or boy soldiers? | |
