Anything wrong with this sentence?

[nq:1]In response to a misunderstanding, the auto mechanic wrote "Nowhere in my previous message I said that the care was being fixed." Anything grammatically wrong with his sentence?[/nq]
The idiom is, 'nowhere ... did I say'.

Paul
My Lake District walking site (updated 29th September 2003):

on 23 Oct 2003:
[nq:1]In response to a misunderstanding, the auto mechanic wrote "Nowhere in my previous message I said that the care was being fixed." Anything grammatically wrong with his sentence?[/nq]
Yes. It has to be "Nowhere in my previous message did I say that the car was being fixed." Even with the two errors in that message, however, the meaning is perfectly clear.

For

On 23 Oct 2003 10:40:21 GMT, CyberCypher
[nq:1]on 23 Oct 2003:[/nq]
[nq:2]In response to a misunderstanding, the auto mechanic wrote "Nowhere ... care was being fixed." Anything grammatically wrong with his sentence?[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes. It has to be "Nowhere in my previous message did I say that the car was being fixed." Even with the two errors in that message, however, the meaning is per

[nq:1]There are also simpler, non-inverted versions: I said nowhere in my previous message that the car was being fixed. I didn't say anywhere in my previous message[/nq]
Even simpler: I didn't say in my previous message

[nq:2]In response to a misunderstanding, the auto mechanic wrote "Nowhere ... care was being fixed." Anything grammatically wrong with his sentence?[/nq]
[nq:1]The idiom is, 'nowhere ... did I say'[/nq]
Why is that? Can you give more examples of this structure?

[nq:2]The idiom is, 'nowhere ... did I say'[/nq]
[nq:1]Why is that?[/nq]
It's an arbitrary rule of English sentence structure. The rule is:

If you put a negative adverb at the beginning of a sentence (that is, an adverb whose meaning looks sufficiently negative to induce so-called Negative Polarity in the sentence; see

[nq:2]The idiom is, 'nowhere ... did I say'[/nq]
[nq:1]Why is that?[/nq]
No good reason that I can think of, but see Aaron's post below.

Paul
My Lake District walking site (updated 29th September 2003): http://paulrooney.netfirms.com
Please sponsor me for the

[nq:2]Why is that?[/nq]
[nq:1]It's an arbitrary rule of English sentence structure.[/nq]
"Arbitrary" is a strong word to use. Is there really any "arbitrary" rule of language? It's possible to say that this form became the norm because it was the easier to understand. *"Nowhere in my message I said" is confusing because the hearer is hit by the paradox of "nowhere" and "in my message I sai

[nq:1]Even simpler: I didn't say in my previous message [/nq]
This totally loses the severity though.
Kev

[nq:2]Even simpler: I didn't say in my previous message [/nq]
[nq:1]This totally loses the severity though.[/nq]
"Look, dipshit, I didn't say ( . . .)"

Ross Howard