LINGUIST List 4.257

Thu 08 Apr 1993

Disc: Not, one

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1. Larry Horn, Re: 4.249 Earliest Citation of NOT; Journal Of Undergraduate
2. , Dummy 'One'

Message 1: Re: 4.249 Earliest Citation of NOT; Journal Of Undergraduate

In response to Bruce Nevin's posting on the 1905 retro-NOT from "Pigs is
Pigs": That citation certainly does take pride of place as far as I know. I
had earlier posted two citations from "Comrades of the Saddle", a juvenile
Western (not featuring Irish immigrants as far as I can tell) published in
1910. The two relevant passages (contexts provided on request) were
 "You're a fine commander to be lieutenant for--not", declared Horace. (p. 68)
 "He's a fine neighbor--not", declared Larry. (p. 145)
 [Frank V. Webster, "Comrades of the Saddle". New York: Cupples & Leon.]
Also published in 1910 was a "Little Nemo in Slumberland" comic strip, New
York Herald, Feb. 13, 1910, in which the eponymous hero dreams up a "big
flying machine" which he uses to deliver, as a favor to the postmaster,
billions of Valentine's Day cards, one of which--dropped down to a bullying
policeman, reads "YOU ARE A BRAVE COP NOT". The Nemo datum I owe to Richard
Piepenbrock, and the Webster ones to John Wildanger. Pace Bruce, I'm pretty
sure there were no citations provided by Larry Hyman, but he may have just
been applying the well-known or-->yma/Larry H__n rule.

 --Larry Horn (I think)

This may or may not be relevant to the discussion I caught the
tail end of, but constructions with dummy 'one' need not involve
adjectives, it seems to me. An NP like 'a history one' seems
perfectly OK, and so do things like 'I want one, too' (where no
modifier need be understood), and 'I want one with a cherry on top'.
Thus, I am not sure that 'one' is a good example of what it was
supposed to be the only attested instance of.