LINGUIST List 3.320

Sun 05 Apr 1992

Disc: Like & Not

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Karen Chenausky, Re: 3.307 FYI: All, Media, Reviewers
2. Larry Horn, Not

Message 1: Re: 3.307 FYI: All, Media, Reviewers

Speaking of ALL versus LIKE in colloquial speech, I've noticed that I use
LIKE when I mean to describe something I feel but do not say. For example:
"he said, 'well, *you* look like something the cat dragged in,' and I'm like,
'thanks a lot', but what I said was, 'yeah, I'm really tired today.'" ALL, on
the other hand, I use to express the overriding impression I get from what
someone actually says. So using the above situation again, I could say I was
ALL 'thanks a lot' and huffy only if I came out and said so. I in fact did
not, so instead I was ALL, 'yeah, you're right...'.

I bring this up because I *didn't* expect LIKE where Mr. Norrick said we might.

 Now, as for the ...not!: The earliest sighting yet, thanks to
correspondent Robert Richardson of Marion, Mass., who is a collector of early
20th century American juvenile novels. The following excerpts are from
"Comrades of the Saddle", a novel by Frank V. Webster--you may be or may
not be familiar with his other work, which includes "Tom the Telephone
Boy", "The Boy Pilot of the Lakes", and "Two Boy Gold Miners".

[p. 68] "Larry, you and Bill build the fire and get supper ready. Horace,
I'll put you in charge and you must arrange the place for us to sleep. I can
see some pine trees yonder. Break off some limbs and spread them on the
ground. Then put the blankets over them."
 "You're a fine commander to be lieutenant for--not", declared Horace.
"Gave me the meanest job of all." Yet he lost no time in obeying.

[p. 145] "He's a fine neighbor--not", declared Larry. "I should have thought
he would be only too glad to help your father and Mr. Snider get back their
cattle."

Both from Frank V. Webster, "Comrades of the Saddle, or the Young Rough Riders
of the Plains", New York: Cupples & Leon, 1910. Yup, that's right, 1910.
Can anybody predate that?

And finally, the singular sex-indefinite "they" of the month, from a N. Y.
Times article by Andrew Rosenthal (3/19/92, B9) on the new "thriller" by
Marilyn Quayle and sister:

 "There are two different kinds of Washington novelists", said Sally
Quinn, a former reporter for The Washington Post who has written two novels
set in Washington. "One is the Washington celebrity who decides they want to
write a novel--the Gary Hart, Bill Cohen, Marilyn Quayle, Maureen Dean
syndrome..."
 --Larry Horn (LHORNYALEVM.bitnet)