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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