Positive Polarity

If you have read the post on Negative Polarity today, http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2013/12/negative-polarity.html, then .... spoiler alert? Anyway, go read and return after a while.

OK. If you have read post, then it may have dawned on you that there must be Positive Polarity Items, too.

I think "oodles" is one such PPI.
Compare "I think your dog is oodles of fun" versus "I do not think your dog is oodles of fun." Although I may say the first (in some alternative universe), I would never say the second, especially after stepping into oodles of dog feces left in the summer cottage backyard on Fathers' Day, 2013.

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Negative Polarity

 

Scissors Grinder, by Karl Malevich

(I could not find a picture of a Tinker)

Negative Polarity Items on All Things Linguistic:
http://allthingslinguistic.com/post/61793502009/giving-a-shit-about-negative-polarity-items

NPI stands for Negative Polarity Item, and they’re called that because they tend to be found in the scope of negation and serve to emphasize that negation. Classic examples are any, ever, and even, which sound great in negative sentences like (1-4) but pretty weird in the positive equivalents in (5-8).*

(1) I don’t love anyone.
(2) We are never, ever, getting back together.
(3) I don’t even know myself.
(4) I don’t want to go to sleep either.

(5) *I love anyone.
(6) *We are ever getting back together.
(7) *I even know myself.
(8) *I want to go to sleep either...

 I came up with "a tinker's dam"  (or "damn", if you must)  as in "I don't give a tinker's dam" versus "I do give a tinker's dam." Obviously a negative polarity item.

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