[lit-ideas] Re: Anymore

From "Thursday sermons", by Revd. Geary:
 
     "To-day we'll speak about grammar. 
     Grammar is what separates us 
     from the beasts.  
     Have you ever wondered why  
the lower classes act so beastly?  
 
           [pause.  silence in the auditorioum]
 
 
        Here's a clue: check out their  grammar. 
Yes, that's why.  
        They are beastly because their  grammar is beastly. 

Grammar is our shibboleth. 
 
        Our shibboleth 
         for
education.
 
        Our shibboleth for class 
 
        Our shibboleth for  worthiness.  
 
       So, too, is accent.  
       As is vocabulary. 
 
       How many of you know what  'shibboleth' 
       means.
 
                [Silence from the audience] 
 
       How many. 
       It's the blood in the flood. 
 
       "For they were slaughtered ‘at the  fords of Jordan’"
        Amen 
 
                  (Congregation:  Amen)
 
       Grammar is a shibboleth -- and you  know it.
 
        "No we ain't" saith the  fool
         Yeah he _shall_, says  I.

"Ain't" -- what  does 'ain't' convey? 
 
         What does 'ain't' convey  to you?
 
         Well, it conveys the same  grammatical 
meaning as "is/am/are  not".
 
          What "ain't" does  not convey is 
         gentile, oops gentle,  upbringing and  
 
          grammar's main  function in human 
          communication is  not
communication of  meaning.
 
          Grammar's main  function in 
          humman communication  -- nay, human communion -- 
          is communication of  class.  
 
                   [Silence] 
 
         And them what don't speak  it don't gets no job.  
 
                           [Genteel smiles from the auditorioum --
                                followed by soft 'shh']
 
 
           It's as simple  as that.  We here 
           at the  Memphis  Metaphysical Ministry 
           have struggled  -- and struggled 
           to establish  Grammatical Outreach  
Programs for  many years
 
           I don't need  to tell you about that no more. Do I. 
 
           but it  takes two. 
 
           The fool,  Jesus says, is slow 
 
           in taking  advantage of our pastoral help. 
 
           If today we  offer you poetry, it is with the hope that
           it will  inspire you all 
           a greater  interest in 
grammatical correctness 
 
          -- especially in the  innercity neighborhoods of Memphis. 
 
          And perchance  turn this, my beloved city, around, 
 
          In this letter, by  our dear Mirembe Nantango,
          it's all to  clear [displays letter -- reads] 
 
                    Nineteen anymore
                   Nineteen  anymore
                    A whistle in the dark.
                           We'll squeeze Michael a bit. 
                           We'll squeeze Michael a bit. A whistle in the 
dark. 
                          He'll  chip in anymore. 
                           Anymore he'll chip -- _in_. 
                  Nineteen  anymore
                   Nineteen anymore     
 Everything we do 
                             anymore 
                   seems to have to be done 
                           in a big hurry.
                   Done  in a big hurry anymore
                   Everything  we do.
                   We'll  squeeze Michael a bit.
                            Nineteen anymore
                    A whistle in the dark.
                            He'll chip in -- anymore.
 
[JL -- the collection]
 
 
In a message dated 2/26/2009 8:04:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
It's wrong, right?  Common enough in  student writing, but wrong. 


"We don’t have that Saturday rush  anymore."

I don't think it's wrong. The OED has it as
 
"also 19- anymore". And that's _descriptive_, right?
 
----There's a long attestation for the spelling, notably T. Murphy, in  
"Whistle in the Dark".
 
 

Forms: see ANY a. and pron. and MORE a., pron., n.3, adv., and prep.;  also 
19- anymore. 

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.): Jer. (Bodl. 959) iii.  1 
 
If a man schal leue his wijf & she..wedde anoer man, wheer shal she  turnen 
aeen any more to hym? 

a1450 (a1338) R. MANNYNG Chron. (Lamb.) I. 14001 yf e chalange hym any  mare. 
1526 Pylgrimage of Perfection (de Worde) f. 212 But now he shall neuer dye  
ony more. 
 
1490 CAXTON Eneydos xix. 72 To presse me wyth wordes ony more. 
c1680 BEVERIDGE Serm. (1729) I. 503 Few that do any more than profess it. 
1792 A. YOUNG Trav. France 262 What, in point of beauty, has London to do  
with the Thames..any more than with Fleet-ditch, buried as it is, a common  
shore? 
1920 D. H. LAWRENCE Women in Love xiii. 167 ‘Quite absurd,’ he said.  ‘
Suffering bores me, any more.’ 
1920 J. A. ROBERTSON Hidden Romance New Test. viii. 173, I see you are a  
Jew, like myself... But you don't wear the Zizith any more than I do. 
1961 T. MURPHY Whistle in Dark in Plays (1989) IV. II. 47 We'll squeeze  
Michael a bit. He'll chip in anymore. 
1979 Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ontario) 20 Nov. 1/3 Everything we do anymore  
seems to have to be done in a big hurry.
 
JLS
**************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy 
steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1001265
75x1218822736x1201267884/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID
%3D62%26bcd%3DfebemailfooterNO62)
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: