I Googled “everyone is not” (in quotes) and got
over a million responses. Just on page 1, there were these:
·
Everyone is not a designer.
·
Everyone is not doing it. (about abstinence)
·
Why everyone is not entitled to an opinion.
·
Why everyone is not your prospect.
·
“Everyone” is not your target market. (OK,
the quotes make this one different.)
It seems that many people use “not everyone is”
and “everyone is not” synonymously. Or should I say, everyone does
not understand “everyone does not understand” to mean “no one
understands.”
Dick
________________________________
Richard Veit
Department of English
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 9:15 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: a problem in negation
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
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From:
> 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
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> [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
>
>
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