Did she smile or not?
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https://twitter.com/jenlikespizza/status/990730742052225024
What a grim life Nicole must have led! Or was her life full of canines and smiles?
[h.t. Geok Hoon (Janet) Williams]
April 30, 2018 @ 2:20 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Misnegation
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https://twitter.com/jenlikespizza/status/990730742052225024
What a grim life Nicole must have led! Or was her life full of canines and smiles?
[h.t. Geok Hoon (Janet) Williams]
April 30, 2018 @ 2:20 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Misnegation
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Bloix said,
April 30, 2018 @ 4:43 pm
From today's Above the Law:
Former Law Clerk About To Stand Trial For Allegedly Impersonating Judge Found Dead In Apparent Suicide
zafrom said,
April 30, 2018 @ 7:16 pm
For the sake of Nicole's thighs, it hopefully contains only 2 small dogs.
FM said,
April 30, 2018 @ 9:34 pm
Shouldn't this be filed under "ambiguity" rather than "misnegation"?
I'm assuming the intended interpetation is:
"who never (saw a dog and didn't smile.)"
MattF said,
April 30, 2018 @ 10:01 pm
I think it's very nearly unfixable. "…who always greeted a dog with a smile."
David Morris said,
April 30, 2018 @ 10:40 pm
"who smiled whenever she saw a dog"?
Jeremy Daum said,
May 1, 2018 @ 12:45 am
Who never failed to smile when she saw a dog.
Who never saw a dog that didn't make her smile.
Ray said,
May 1, 2018 @ 12:47 am
"who never saw a dog but didn't smile" probably doesn't help, either!
Keith said,
May 1, 2018 @ 1:22 am
"Could never see a dog without smiling" might have been better.
But it's not really all that ambiguous.
Surely, if you wanted to state that she never saw a dog, neither did she ever smile, the simple insertion of a comma after the word "dog" would have sufficed. The comma is absent, so that meaning is excluded.
maidhc said,
May 1, 2018 @ 3:13 am
None of the proposed alternatives have the attractive rhythmic structure of the original. I'd like to let it stand.
B.Ma said,
May 1, 2018 @ 3:14 am
Is there really a need for the "who"? Why not just "All dogs made her smile" or something along those lines?
Ryan said,
May 1, 2018 @ 3:43 am
Most of the rephrasings suggested here kind of miss the point. If you're going to rephrase it, keep the Will Rogers allusion intact.
Iño said,
May 1, 2018 @ 5:25 am
Who never saw a dog and didn’t smile?
J.W. Brewer said,
May 1, 2018 @ 9:22 am
The way to make it parallel to the Will Rogers line would be "Who never saw a dog she didn't smile at." At least assuming that in this sort of genre you're not going to be paralyzed with fear of getting in trouble by using a preposition in final position.
J. Silk said,
May 1, 2018 @ 11:40 am
@maidhc said,
… I'd like to let it stand.
But … it's on a bench, so…
Victor Mair said,
May 1, 2018 @ 11:59 am
From Thomas L. Mair:
Fun! I tried to come up with an option but I believe they're all covered already.
Now someone needs to come up with a response that says when Nicole greeted a dog, the dog would invariably smile.
Ellen K. said,
May 1, 2018 @ 5:45 pm
I got the right reading first (that is, assuming the point is she never saw a dog without smiling), and thought it sounded awkward. Whereas the wrong reading isn't awkward sounding, it just seems a very unlikely thing to say.
The Suffocated said,
May 1, 2018 @ 10:27 pm
In loving memory of Leatherface, who never sawed a dog and didn't smile.