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Thread: and nor does my brother

  1. #1
    keannu is offline Key Member
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    Default and nor does my brother

    Can you say "and nor does my brother" ? Doesn't it have to be "nor does my brother" as "nor" has the meaning of "and+not"?
    ex)My dad doesn't drink soda. My brother doesn't either.
    -> My dad doesn't drink soda, and nor does my brother.

  2. #2
    waflob is offline Member
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    Default Re: and nor does my brother

    I would use 'neither' instead of 'nor'.
    If you really want to use 'nor', then you could say something like

    "Neither my father, nor my brother, drink soda"

  3. #3
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    5jj
    5jj is online now Moderator
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    Default Re: and nor does my brother

    All of these are acceptable:

    My dad doesn't drink soda(,) and neither/nor does my brother.
    My dad doesn't drink soda; neither/nor does my brother.
    My dad doesn't drink soda, and my brother doesn't, either.
    My dad doesn't drink soda; my brother doesn't, either.
    Neither my dad nor my brother drinks soda
    .

    Although technically incorrect, many people say: Neither my dad nor my brother drink soda.
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    Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.


  4. #4
    keannu is offline Key Member
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    Threadstarter / Original Poster

    Default Re: and nor does my brother

    Quote Originally Posted by 5jj View Post
    All of these are acceptable:

    My dad doesn't drink soda(,) and neither/nor does my brother.
    My dad doesn't drink soda; neither/nor does my brother.
    My dad doesn't drink soda, and my brother doesn't, either.
    My dad doesn't drink soda; my brother doesn't, either.
    Neither my dad nor my brother drinks soda.

    Although technically incorrect, many people say: Neither my dad nor my brother drink soda.
    Maybe I was wrong in my belief that nor has the meaning of "and+not", so "and" doesn't have to be repeated before "nor" to remove redundancy. But in seperate responses, they don't seem to add "and" like the following.
    A: My dad doesn't drink soda.
    B: Neither(Nor) does mine.
    Can you tell me when you use neither or nor? Is there no difference between the two?

  5. #5
    philo2009 is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: and nor does my brother

    The classical distinction - now only rarely observed - is that 'neither' (the negative counterpart of 'either') is an adverbial conjunct**, while 'nor' (the negative counterpart of 'or') is a true conjunction, giving either e.g.

    He had no money, nor did he have any luck.

    or

    He had no money. Neither did he have any luck.


    However, since coordinating conjunctions regularly serve nowadays - even in educated usage - as adverbial conjuncts (i.e. to introduce clauses rather than simply to conjoin them), we may equally well have

    He had no money. Nor did he have any luck.

    However, 'nor' does not occur (in standard prose) to introduce a phrasal compound, thus

    He had neither money nor luck.

    (not *...nor money nor luck)

    That is to say, only a true adverb can stand in this sentence-position.

    **We are here naturally setting aside the pronominal use of (n)either.
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  6. #6
    keannu is offline Key Member
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    Threadstarter / Original Poster

    Default Re: and nor does my brother

    Quote Originally Posted by philo2009 View Post
    The classical distinction - now only rarely observed - is that 'neither' (the negative counterpart of 'either') is an adverbial conjunct**, while 'nor' (the negative counterpart of 'or') is a true conjunction, giving either e.g.

    He had no money, nor did he have any luck.

    or

    He had no money. Neither did he have any luck.

    However, since coordinating conjunctions regularly serve nowadays - even in educated usage - as adverbial conjuncts (i.e. to introduce clauses rather than simply to conjoin them), we may equally well have

    He had no money. Nor did he have any luck.

    However, 'nor' does not occur (in standard prose) to introduce a phrasal compound, thus

    He had neither money nor luck.

    (not *...nor money nor luck)

    That is to say, only a true adverb can stand in this sentence-position.

    **We are here naturally setting aside the pronominal use of (n)either.
    Okay, awesome!!! Can you explain why this works with "and" when nor already has "and" in it? Just an idiomatic expression?

    ex)My dad doesn't drink soda(,) and neither/nor does my brother.

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    philo2009 is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: and nor does my brother

    Quote Originally Posted by keannu View Post
    Okay, awesome!!! Can you explain why this works with "and" when nor already has "and" in it? Just an idiomatic expression?

    ex)My dad doesn't drink soda(,) and neither/nor does my brother.
    Essentially, if you treat a coordinating conjunction as an adverbial conjunct (as frequently occurs in contemporary usage), then you may quite reasonably add an 'and' which the purist would consider redundant.

    However, to quibble excessively about this distinction nowadays would probably be considered extremely pedantic!

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