Any More on Anymore?: Evidence from a Missouri Dialect Survey

Abstract

THE CONCLUSIONS REACHED IN THIS article about the current usage of anymore are based primarily upon the responses of 926 informants to two printed surveys distributed at the University of Missouri-Columbia during 1978-82. The first survey of 435 respondents included 106 questions, with the last ten (97-106) concerning the acceptability of sentences containing anymore. The second, follow-up survey concentrated solely upon the ten anymore sentences, inquiring into their meaning as well as their acceptability. The results, which are summarized in figures 2 and 3, tend to support the following conclusions: Nearly everyone accepts anymore in yes/no questions (Do they sell those anymore?), in negative declaratives (I don't