LINGUIST List 2.839

Wed 04 Dec 1991

Disc: Not

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Monica Macaulay, NOT
2. Fan mail from some flounder?, Re: 2.828 Queries: Macs, Historical Linguistics, Paper Search
3. , sarcastic post-affirmative NOT
4. Stephen Ryberg, origins of free-standing _Not_
5. "CHARLOTTE S BASHAM", Re: 2.828 Queries: Macs, Historical Linguistics, Paper Search

Re Larry Horn's query: to my knowledge that "Not" originated from
"Wayne's World," a skit on Saturday Night Live. It's supposed to be
a public access program hosted by these two high school boys. It's
pretty hilarious, actually. But to tell you the truth, I've never
been sure if they originated that use of "Not" or if it was part of
teen slang that they then picked up and popularized.

Message 2: Re: 2.828 Queries: Macs, Historical Linguistics, Paper Search

With regard to Larry Horn's query about XXXXX. Not.
I've seen this on TV on Saturday Night Live, specifically on the "Wayne's
World" segments. Although "Wayne's World" takes place in Illinois, my
suspicion is that it's a california-ism, though unfortunately I am not
around California teenagers enough to confirm the suspicion.
Susan Fischer

Sarcastic post-affirmative NOT seems to have been popularized
by the movie BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE and a take-off
on it or the type of talk it make popular in the WAYNE'S WORLD
sketch on Saturday Night Live. My students insist, however,
that they used the construction before the movie came out, so
the film was recording a current pattern rather than inventing
something new. Undergraduates tell me a second speaker may
intrude a post-posed NOT following an affirmative statement by
some other speaker as well. Either way it forces the listener
to go back and re-hear the original statement. I don't think
it's significantly different than a sarcastic NOT MUCH post-posed
to a negative statement like the following, which has no special
dialect or register feeling to it for me.
 Al doesn't smoke any more -pause- not MUCH.

Larry Horn asks about (among other things) the origins of the free-standing
_Not_ following an affirmative statement. For what it's worth, I first
heard this used on the "Wayne's World" skits of Saturday Night Live perhaps
a year or more ago. It is also featured in a current Budweiser commercial
starring an elderly lady (from Nashville?) who plays the quitar and the
former guitarist for The Stray Cats, when the former says to the latter,
during a strange dream of his, "You're pretty good. Not!" Sorry I have no
real natural data to supply.
Steve Ryberg
Northwestern

Message 5: Re: 2.828 Queries: Macs, Historical Linguistics, Paper Search

Larry Horn asked about the use of NOT as sarcastic denial. I can't provide a
verbatim example, but I know that in conversations with my 18 year old son, he
has responded with NOT to statements that I have made (lots of times, in fact).
I'll pay more attention to it and report in. Charley Basham FFCSBALASKA