Hi! Ardith,

On 01/09/2019 02:20 PM, you wrote:

 AH>   Q.  Who was that lady I saw you with last night?
 AH>   A.  That was no lady, that was my wife.

 AH>                                 -- a joke I heard from my father, when I
 AH> was a kid and "lady" was not synonymous with "woman"

Same with me.  In support of my point I'm thinking that that was from
Groucho Marx film.

 AH>             WRT connotation, Anton summarized neatly what I had in mind
 AH> there: the "no" version comes aross as stronger &
more emotional to me
 AH> as well.

Not for me.  But language is very much a personal interpretation and
expression of worldly things.

 AH>             If the "no" version rubs you the wrong way, I
think that's
 AH> because you see some exaggeration... as I do in what I quoted above.

No, I simply see it as an error in personal choice.  When it comes time to
pull such a 'standard' response I would opt for "not a".

 AH> Feelings may be running high WRT the situation Alexander referred to,
 AH> and I have noticed that when people are reacting emotionally they tend
 AH> to think in terms of good guys vs. bad guys, us vs. them, and so forth.
 AH> In the last two examples I cited, a person who knows the accused quite
 AH> well is challenging the accuser(s) to look more closely at the situation
 AH> & draw conclusions on an individual basis.  :-)

My oh my.  I knew you would have fun with this thought teaser of Alexander's.  ;)

Cheers,
Paul.

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