Seth,
   I was impressed with Bill's answer also (not the first time and I 
hope not the last.) I just wanted to add that I immediately thought of 
"All that glitters isn't gold" as following the same pattern. I have 
been waiting to post it, hoping another example might come to mind, but 
none has. I suspect that's not enough to make it a fixed construction. 
But people have found it acceptable enough to repeat it.

Craig

Katz, Seth wrote:
> Thanks, Bill--beautifully articulated, as usual.  My friend--a biology professor--really appreciated your response.
>  
> Dr. Seth Katz 
> Assistant Professor
> Department of English
> Bradley University
>  
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Spruiell, William C
> Sent: Wed 9/10/2008 12:04 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: a problem in negation
>
>
>
> I suspect that most speakers use a "pragmatic" rather than strictly
> logic-based approach to dealing with negation -- that is, there's an
> immediate jump to "why might someone say this?" that at least partially
> bypasses "which unit does the negative group with?" That's the only way
> I can understand why, for example, "I could care less" and "I couldn't
> care less" are interpreted as synonymous by most people.
>
> In this particular case, I'd normally think that a speaker saying "All
> people are not Republicans" might be doing so for one of three reasons:
>
> (1) S/he wants me to interpret it differently from "No-one is a
> Republican," since that's a lot easier if it's what you mean. (This
> gives your (and my) initial reading)
>
> (2) S/he's having one of those not-infrequent slips of the tongue in
> which the negative you meant didn't parachute in when you wanted it to.
>
>
> (3) S/he had a logic class at some point, and is channeling something
> like "For all X such that X are members of the set 'people', X is a
> member of the set 'non-Republican'."
>
>
> I'd probably adjust my guesses based on what I knew of the speaker. If
> s/he has a tendency to fixate on the Liar's Paradox and what it means
> for reality, I'd pick #3, especially if s/he occasionally mutters
> something about early Wittgenstein being *so* much better than later
> Wittgenstein.
>
>
> Bill Spruiell
> Dept. of English
> Central Michigan University
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Katz, Seth
> Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 9:56 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: a problem in negation
>
> A friend sent me the following example of a 'pet peeve':
>
>                 "All people are not Republicans" used to mean that there
> are no Republicans,
>                 period.  When I hear this now, though, after a brief
> celebration, I realize
>                 that the speaker meant "not all people are Republicans".
> Sad, but true to
>                 the times. 
>
> It took me awhile to hear his preferred interpretation of the sentence.
> Why do we jump the negation from "Republicans" to "all"? That is, we
> seem to be doing something like taking an existential statement like
>
>                 There are no people who are Republicans.
>                 There are not people who are Republicans.
>
> And turning it into
>
>                 There are people who are not Republicans.
>
> Why?
>
> Dr. Seth Katz
> Assistant Professor
> Department of English
> Bradley University
>
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