End of ADS-L Digest - 29 Jan 1996 to 30 Jan 1996 ************************************************ There are 8 messages totalling 157 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. any longer & I hope there's any left 2. "street arab" 3. Fwd: Re(2): whoop 4. carried my cousin to the store (2) 5. whoop(s) 6. expressions 7. pshaw ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 10:15:48 +0000 From: "E. W. Gilman" Subject: any longer & I hope there's any left The reason "any" in positive statements seems odd to most of us is that "any" is what Quirk et al 1985 call nonassertive--that is, it occurs generally in questions and in negative statements: Have you any wool? No, I haven't any wool. But not *Yes, I have any wool. "Some" is the usual replacement for "any" in assertive contexts: Yes, I have some wool. There's a lot more of this fascinating stuff in Quirk if anyone (note "any" in a conditional too) cares to plow through it. E.W.Gilman