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NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:43:31 -0600
From: Egbert White <eggwhite@earthlink.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: Correct use of 'neither'
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:43:15 -0800
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On Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:02:08 +0100, Einde O'Callaghan
<eindeoc@freenet.de> wrote:
>Egbert White wrote:
>> On Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:13:40 +0100, Einde O'Callaghan
>> <eindeoc@freenet.de> wrote:
>>
>>> Susanne Colbeth wrote:
>>>> Hi everybody,
>>>>
>>>> using web translators, I got different results:
>>>> 1. I did not know this either.
>>>> 2. I did not know this neither.
>>>>
>>>> Which of those is correct? Can anybody help?
>>>> (I tried with translation from spanisch, where 'tambien' changes to
>>>> 'tampoco').
>>> The first is correct.
>>
>> But it's ambiguous, hence to be avoided. It can mean 'I knew neither
>> this nor something else,' or 'Neither I nor someone else knew this.'
>>
>> That is, in 'I did not know this either,' the antecedent of 'either'
>> is not clear.
>
>On it's own it is ambiguous - but I'm assuming that there is a statement
>before this that makes the antecedent clear. The OP hasn't provided any
>context and only asked which of two alternatives was grammatically
>correct.
In speech, of course, the ambiguity would be avoided by stress and/or
intonation. It could also be avoided in print by italicizing either
'this' or 'I' as appropriate.
>The second alternative was definitely incorrect.
Very true, although it can be expected in substandard English.
I didn't mean to find fault with your completely satisfactory
response. I just thought it was a good occasion to call attention to
an additional usage point.
--
Egbert White, | "I love Americans, but not when they try
Planet Earth | to talk French. What a blessing it is that
| that they never try to talk English."
| -- Saki's Mrs. Mebberley
|
|