I’m not sure what you’re asking - that’s standard usage, even for those of us who don’t use the positive form; the answer would be either:
“I don’t go there anymore”
or
“I still go there”
but not
“Anymore, I go there”
or
“I go there anymore”
I’m not sure what you’re asking - that’s standard usage, even for those of us who don’t use the positive form; the answer would be either:
“I don’t go there anymore”
or
“I still go there”
but not
“Anymore, I go there”
or
“I go there anymore”
That is to say, the question is neither ‘positive’ nor ‘negative’ but if we change it thus:
“You don’t go there anymore, do you?” works for me
“You do go there anymore, don’t you?” does not
Yeah, and I understand that. I’m not exactly demanding that everyone start using the positive anymore–although it would be nice if all people modeled themselves to my standards. But I do have to object when people start slinging around words like “crap” and “horrible” and “uneducated” about my dialect.
And as I say, I’m not really trying to be stubborn about this. I just genuinely, honest to God don’t get how people can keep saying the construction “doesn’t make sense,” when to me it’s patently obvious that it does. But I imagine that my recalcitrance on this issue is just as bewildering to you.
I worded that poorly. I use the negative “anymore”, never the positiive.
Having system issues and missed the edit window. The above should read:
I worded that poorly, but I wasn’t addressing the positive vs negative. Postion in the sentence does matter. I would say “We don’t do that anymore” but would not say “Anymore, we don’t do that”. The latter isn’t wrong, it just grates on my ears.
I also use only the negative “anymore”, never the positive.
It’s a perception issue. Same sort of thing that happens when people ascribe value to accents and other social/cultural attributes. They’re being a little too honest in expressing notions essentially based on provincialism.
I’m sure it feels similar from both sides, really. In truth, people probably impose a layer of rationalisation and ‘sense’ over the top of conventions they have actually already accepted as normal; any ‘logical’ explanation either of us offers one another is pretty superficial really.
We speak the way we speak not because we figured out some universal logical truth, but only because it’s what we learned.
I’m a life-long Southern Californian, and I’d never heard the “positive” construction until I met my Ohio-born wife. And as she said, yes, it drives me crazy. It was a long time before I could even figure out why it sounded wrong. I just knew it was wrong when I heard it.
I have used it that way a few times, purely for fun. I know it’s “wrong”, just like I know double negatives are wrong but I occasionally use them anyway for effect. I was not raised in a locale in which the term was ever used in that way; it’s only in my adult life that I’ve used it.
I agree. I’ve only heard it at the beginning in this thread.
No, but I once wittingly arrived at a party gruntled. (Does prevent mean farting before you eat the beans?)
I had no idea that was considered to be ungrammatic until a friend in high school had a similar reaction. She said either add ‘to be’ or shift to mowing and washing.
According to wiki, it’s also standard usage if used in interrogative and hypothetical contexts. So just the fact that it’s a question meets the standard. I’m guessing that the hypothetical is why “It seems like everyone is X, anymore” sounds OK. Or not. It sounds like some posters do not allow the hypothetical context.
In my dialect, the interrogative use of “any more” is grammatical (as it is in the parallel cases of “any longer,” “any less,” and “any better” mentioned above), but it doesn’t work with the hypothetical as you’ve constructed it.
Once again, out of curiosity, does a statement such as “Any longer, I go there” work for the “anymore, I go there” folks? This is a sincere question (I have no idea whether it sounds right or not to the speakers whose dialect allows the positive “anymore” construction.) My guess is that is probably does sound okay, but I don’t know. If so, are there similar positive instances of “any better” and “any less” that are common in dialect?
I use “anymore” in the positive sense, but I wouldn’t tend to use it in the beginning of a sentence either positively or negatively.
This sort of reaction is precisely why I started using the phrase.
I do the same with the “needs washed” type of construction. I just can’t beat the “anymore” instinct out of me, but, for whatever reasons, “the car needs washed” is a wonderful construction to my ears, even though I did not grow up with it.
Should I take umbrage with being told that “so don’t I” makes no sense? I’m not under the illusion that it makes grammatical sense, so I don’t.
As a matter of fact, no, at least for me. I suspect it’s because, as I indicated, I don’t parse the word “anymore” as being semantically equivalent to “any more” (meaning some additional amount), but as a separate adverb with its own meaning (now, but not then).
As an aside, while I don’t object to the use of positive anymore at the beginning of a sentence, I don’t typically use it that way myself. I will almost invariably put it at the end.
One of us! One of us!
I actually think the versions with “anymore” at the beginning sound better. Sure, they sound a bit uneducated, but they aren’t as jarring as actually putting “anymore” at the end of a positive statement.
I find that “needs washed” sounds better than “needs washing,” although “needs to be washed” sounds better. I feel like there should be a word between “needs” and “washing.”
Some of my older Irish-American relatives used “Anymore” as a synonym for “nowadays,” but I never have.
I admit it is bewildering to me The usage doesn’t particularly bother me, but it does baffle me that it makes actual sense to you.
If someone asked you, “Do you have any more of that?” would you say, “Yes, I have any more”?