On Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:22:17 +0000, Guy Barry wrote:
> "Customers don't think so too" (just heard on the radio).
> I'd say "customers don't think so either". Can you use "too" after a
> negative verb like that?
No. But in spontaneous speech, people often do what is usually described by the usage manuals as "changing horses in mid-stream", meaning finding that as they near the end of a sentence it isn't saying what they thought it would when they started it, so that they then splice the end of a revised version onto the incomplete original.
> On Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:22:17 +0000, Guy Barry wrote:
>> "Customers don't think so too" (just heard on the radio).
>> I'd say "customers don't think so either". Can you use "too" after a
>> negative verb like that?
> No. But in spontaneous speech, people often do what is usually described
> by the usage manuals as "changing horses in mid-stream", meaning finding
> that as they near the end of a sentence it isn't saying what they thought
> it would when they started it, so that they then splice the end of a
> revised version onto the incomplete original.
I think that's exactly what happens. It should be avoided in serious writing, but it is unavoidable in speech, and if one tried to avoid it in speech one would end up speaking in a very stilted way.
<acorn...@imm.cnrs.fr> wrote:
>On 2012-11-14 10:06:27 +0000, Eric Walker said:
>> On Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:22:17 +0000, Guy Barry wrote:
>>> "Customers don't think so too" (just heard on the radio).
>>> I'd say "customers don't think so either". Can you use "too" after a
>>> negative verb like that?
>> No. But in spontaneous speech, people often do what is usually described
>> by the usage manuals as "changing horses in mid-stream", meaning finding
>> that as they near the end of a sentence it isn't saying what they thought
>> it would when they started it, so that they then splice the end of a
>> revised version onto the incomplete original.
>I think that's exactly what happens. It should be avoided in serious >writing, but it is unavoidable in speech, and if one tried to avoid it >in speech one would end up speaking in a very stilted way.
As, indeed, Enoch Powell did; but he was unbelievably good at sounding
just like a talking textbook.
-- Robin Bignall
(BrE)
Herts, England
On Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:22:17 -0000, Guy Barry wrote:
> "Customers don't think so too" (just heard on the radio).
> I'd say "customers don't think so either". Can you use "too" after a > negative verb like that?
Hmm. I would interpret that as "someone believes A, but customers do not share that belief". "Customers don't think so either" I would interpret as "someone does not believe A, and customers likewise don't believe A."
I might write or utter "Customers don't think so either", but not "customers don't think so too" -- it seems a bit odd to me.
-- "The difference between the /almost right/ word and the /right/ word
is ... the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning."
--Mark Twain
Stan Brown, Tompkins County, NY, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com
> On Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:22:17 -0000, Guy Barry wrote:
>> "Customers don't think so too" (just heard on the radio).
> Hmm. I would interpret that as "someone believes A, but customers do > not share that belief".
I'd understand it the same way.
If I wanted to make a positive statement that customers agreed in not
thinking so, I'd say, I'd put the adverb before the verb: "Customers
also don't think so" or "Customers, too, don't think so."
