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How do we agree with a negative sentence?

What is the choice? 'me neither' or 'me too'?

Say,

Andy: I don't like my teacher.
Bob: Me, neither.

OR

Andy: I don't like my teacher.
Bob: Me, too.

Jasper
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Maulik V
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    But what is a negative sentence? – Damkerng T. Nov 30 '15 at 06:34
  • Examples are there @DamkerngT. If you have better words/phrase for that, please help change the title/body. – Maulik V Nov 30 '15 at 06:39
  • I don't think I really can fix it because the example in your question is specific, so you seem to mean a specific meaning of "negative sentence" when asking the question. But your answer tries to generalize that, and your "negative sentence" seems to have a wider range. And really, I don't know the answer. In other words, I don't know what would be the answers of all possible sentences (e.g., is there any sentence that both the replies "Me, too" and "Me, (n)either" are equally valid?) Is "You can dislike your teacher" a negative sentence? What about "You barely like her"? and so on. – Damkerng T. Nov 30 '15 at 06:48
  • I barely like her - is there 'not' word? I also gave this example. So, the answer would be 'me too' and not 'me neither'. @DamkerngT. – Maulik V Nov 30 '15 at 06:51
  • And, what do you mean by negative sentence? I meant actually this @DamkerngT. – Maulik V Nov 30 '15 at 06:53
  • I didn't talk about my "negative sentence" (and I probably won't until I've finished reading CGEL; unless, of course, I want to use the term loosely). Now, back to your question, your comment implies that "I barely like her" should only be answered with "'me too' and not 'me neither'". You might find it interesting to google for "I barely * me too", "I barely * me neither", "I barely * me either", "I hardly * me too", "I hardly * me neither", "I hardly * me either", and so on. – Damkerng T. Nov 30 '15 at 07:13
  • We both know google results, don't we? Anyway, I found it useful as those questions are closed/duplicate. You are free to express your views in anyway. @DamkerngT. – Maulik V Nov 30 '15 at 07:27
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    I don't want to continue this further, but let me be clear about my first comment, in case you might misread my tone. I posted it as a thought-provoking comment so the reader (and you, too, of course) would pause and think if the choice of too/either/neither is directly related to the sentence being negative, and if it is, it's negative how? in what way? -- BTW, wouldn't it be easier to vote to reopen the existing question if you think it was unreasonably closed? – Damkerng T. Nov 30 '15 at 07:39
  • To the close voters -that question is about replying with 'neither' and 'SO'. This is about 'neither' and TOO. You mean 'so' and 'too' are equal? Furthermore, do they have the same structure in replying? Like - *'So do I'* equals *'I too'*? – Maulik V Dec 04 '15 at 04:49
  • @MaulikV Yes, barely creates a negative context. We can tell because negative polarity items work: **I like her at all* is ungrammatical because at all doesn't work in an affirmative context, but I don't* like her at all* and I barely* like her at all* are both fine. But barely doesn't contain an overt negator like not, so words like this are what Huddleston & Pullum call covertly negative (CGEL p.835). –  Dec 04 '15 at 06:01
  • But where does 'at all' come? @snailboat – Maulik V Dec 04 '15 at 06:11
  • At all is an example of a negative polarity item (NPI). It's sensitive to whether the context it appears in is affirmative, negative, or interrogative. Like most NPIs, it works only in negative and interrogative contexts, so we can use it as a test of sorts to see if a word creates a negative context. This is relevant to the choice of (n)either and too: ① "I barely like her at all!" "I don't either." ② "I dislike my teacher." "I do, too." –  Dec 04 '15 at 06:18
  • @MaulikV Due to these "covertly negative" words like barely, the rule in your answer isn't quite right. It's almost right – most negatives are "overt", which means they have an overt negator like not or -n't somewhere in them. By the way, I see you've asked for references. I gave a page number for CGEL above, but I see from the comment in your answer that you have Michael Swan's Practical English Usage. He gives a very simplified version in section 367.5 "other negative words", where he writes: "Other words besides not can make a clause negative". Hardly is one of his examples. –  Dec 04 '15 at 06:49
  • Yes, I don't have CGEL. Thanks for PEU's reference. – Maulik V Dec 04 '15 at 06:54
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. –  Dec 04 '15 at 09:08

1 Answers1

2

Agreeing with negative sentences can take both - 'me neither' or 'me too'. But it depends on the negative sentence's construction.

If the negative sentence has 'not', reply it with 'neither' and not 'too'.

I do not like my teacher ~ me neither (not me too).

If the negative sentence does not contain 'not', reply it with 'me too' and not 'me neither'.

I dislike my teacher ~ me too (not me neither)

I'm writing this as I see that this question is marked as a duplicate; and furthermore the duplicate question is closed!

What is the source of this answer? I'm not sure because I found this from my English Notes. And my notes are straight from authentic sources like Oxford, Cambridge, Swan's PEU, Ed Swick etc.

If this sounds incorrect, I welcome comments preferably with references.

Community
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Maulik V
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  • Well, problem is that dislike does not give a grammatically or semantically negative sentence. And more problematic loads of other words apart from not do give negative polarity sentences wich may therefore take neither instead of too. For example A: I hardly ever go there B: Me neither. – Araucaria - Not here any more. Nov 30 '15 at 10:39
  • The whole issue is just with the word 'negative'. The solution is let's find how to put it in a right way. I'm pretty sure about my notes that come from authentic sources. And, I thought that since those both questions are closed, this would benefit others. @Araucaria – Maulik V Nov 30 '15 at 10:51
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    The thing is that you're generalizing. None of what you've written is wrong. Nevertheless, when you're writing in terms of generalizing what happens in language, your analysis has to be as complete as possible; otherwise, it's considered a flawed analysis. Hence why writing canonical posts is as cumbersome as it is. – M.A.R. Dec 04 '15 at 12:03
  • The only flaw I find here is no reference I remember because it's not written in my notebook (and I have many grammar books). It has definitely come from any of those authentic sources mentioned. And, when I write notes, I don't change my words as far as possible. Said that, those all were called 'negative sentences'. Downvoters don't make any difference to the facts. Even if it is grayed, it'll still serve the purpose. @Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. – Maulik V Dec 04 '15 at 12:08
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    @Maulik please reread my previous comment. I see nothing in this answer that is wrong. It's just that, trying to be a representative of the language, it's incomplete. And it's wrong to do an incomplete analysis of language. So either I'm not voting, or I'll up vote if you try to speak of the very sentence mentioned in your question, i.e. the specific case. The fact that what you've written is from authentic sources has nothing to do with the comprehensiveness of your analysis. – M.A.R. Dec 04 '15 at 12:13