Is "last" acting like a negative polarity item?

Herb

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dick Veit
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2010 9:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Independent clause or noun phrase

"The last grill brush" is a noun phrase, with an implied "it is." The "you will ever need" is a relative clause with a null (unstated) relative pronoun.

I'd like to hear more from ATEGers about "ever." Am I wrong that it occurs without a negative only in relative clauses like this? "You won't ever need a grill brush" is fine, but not *"You will ever need a grill brush."

Dick
On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 8:35 AM, Scott Lavitt <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Happy holidays all.

I've been a member of this listserve for years and occasionally seek your collective opinion. Question: how does one parse the following?:

The last grill brush you will ever need.

I could see this as an independent clause, with "you" as the subj. and "The last grill brush" as the DO, but that doesn't seem right. Seems there is an implied "It is," making the above a noun phrase, and therefore not an independent clause. Thoughts?

Thank you,

Scott Lavitt

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