LINGUIST List 3.888

Tue 10 Nov 1992

Disc: Negatives

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1. John Dingley, NE exple'tif
2. (ohn Dingley, so don't I not
3. (ohn Dingley, I don't think, not
4. (ohn Dingley, I don't think anymore

Pascal Amsili <amsiliirit.fr> (Vol-3-861) is not quite right in stating
that the NE exple'tif has never had an accompanying PAS. In "propositions
corre'latives", although PAS today is always absent in Standard French
(as indeed is NE more often than not), e.g. "Paris e'tait alors plus
aimable qu'il N'est aujourd'hui" (A. France, VIE EN FLEUR), formerly,
and even today in some regional varieties of French, e.g. Que'bec,
NE ... PAS could and can be found, e.g. "Vous avez plus faim que vous
NE pensez PAS (Molie`re, ETOURDI). For further details, see Grevisse's
LE BON USAGE (12th ed.), pp. 1494-1495.

John Dingley

I just came across the usage note cited below in Scott & Denny,
*Elementary English Composition* (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1906),
p. 254. It suggests an early analogue of *so don't I* and post-
sentential not, and an early controversy over the issue that I was
unaware of. Clearly *I don't think* was common enough at the time
to provoke the following comment:

 *I don't think.* A prejudice has arisen against this
 harmless form of speech because of its misuse in such
 sentences as, "I shan't go to town to-day, I don't think."
 It is also used ironically in the slang expression, "Oh, he's
 all right, I don't think." But such expressions as
 "I don't think I shall go to town," "I don't think he is
 all right," are unobjectionable.

	Dennis
	Dennis Baron debaronuiuc.edu

I was reading P.G. Wodehouse last night and came across the following
example of the slang "I don't think." It's from "Buried Treasure," in
the collection *The Crime Wave at Blandings* (NY: Book League of
America, 1937), pp. 197-98. Learning of his beloved Muriel's engagement
to another, Brancepeth says, "A nice surprise that was to spring on a
chap, was it not? A jolly way of saying `Welcome to Rumpling Hall,'
I don't think."

Mencken identifies this use of "I don't think" as slang in *The
American Language* 4e, p. 566, and in Supp. ii, 643; 645. It is
the kind of phrase, he says, that lasts but four or five years. The
reference does not occur in 3e, 2e, or 1e, so it was obviously in use
in the mid 1930s.

But it was evanescent slang, I don't think. In addition to the cite
from Scott and Denny I posted earlier (1906), I managed to turn up
the following letter from Fred Newton Scott in *Nation* 65 (1897):12--

Scott reports here that his students at Michigan had been taught earlier
that "I don't think" is always incorrect. He says, "Asked what is
wrong with the expression, they reply, in one unvarying formula: "If I
do think, I mustn't say I *don't* think." Scott connects this prejudice
to the slang "I don't think" as in "He will get there, I don't think,"
which he notes is sometimes abbreviated "I.d.t.", and with the
"ungrammatical" use, as in "He isn't handsome, I don't think." It seems
that an attempt to make language logical also comes into play. All this
evidence suggests not only a thriving if limited use of "I don't think"
in the late 19th c., but also a division of usage into three strands:
unobjectionable, slang, and ungrammatical. The persistance of the usage
into the 1930s suggests it is not *evanescent* slang, and that it is
related to today's postsentential *not.* *So don't I* suggests the
"ungrammatical" *I don't think* is also idiomatic and of long enough
duration.

Dennis
Dennis Baron (\ debaronuiuc.edu
Dept. of English \'\ office: 217-333-2392
University of Illinois \'\ ________ fax: 217-333-4321
608 S. Wright St / '| ()_______)
Urbana IL 61801 \ '/ \~~~~~~ \
 \ \~~~~~~ \
 ==). \_______\
 (__) ()_______)

Here's probably my last post on *I don't think*:

OED 2e, s.v. *think*, III.9.b. labels this slang, "used after an ironical
statement, to indicate that the reverse is intended."

cites from Dickens (Pickwick) 1837: "You're a amiably-disposed young man,
sir, I don't think," resumed Mr. Weller, in a tone of moral reproof."
Other cites from 1853, 1857, 1911.

It's curious that the OED2 misses the 1930s cite from P.G. Wodehouse,
or the reference in Mencken. No one seems to pick up on Fred Newton
Scott's observation that objection to the slang and "ungrammatical"
uses of the phrase interfere with its normal use as well.

Dennis
Dennis Baron (\ debaronuiuc.edu
Dept. of English \'\ office: 217-333-2392
University of Illinois \'\ ________ fax: 217-333-4321
608 S. Wright St / '| ()_______)
Urbana IL 61801 \ '/ \~~~~~~ \
 \ \~~~~~~ \
 ==). \_______\
 (__) ()_______)