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I think the reason for it should be from the scope of negation.

Let's read this conversation:

A: I don't want to eat the pizza.
B: Me too.

To me, it does not make sense, because without a comma between me and too, the opinion of response of B can be read ridiculously as "Not that I want to eat the pizza more", which is definitely different from the meaning B wants to convey of "I don't want to eat the pizza either", so that native speakers seem not to prefer to place 'too' at the end of the negative agreement to avoid misunderstanding.

Based on my thinking, I think these following options could be acceptable as a negative response in the conversation:

  • The first option adds a comma. B: me, too (but I think that in speech it is barely used by the reason)

  • The second option locates 'too' before the scope of negation. B: I too don't want to eat the pizza.

Is my thinking correct?

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8
  • Where did you get that idea? We don't usually say "me too" in response to a negative. Native speakers vastly prefer "me either" in that situation (sometimes "me neither"). A: I don't want to eat the pizza. B: Me either.
    – Robusto
    Commented Jan 26, 2018 at 21:30
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    @Robusto "either" is child speech in this situation; "neither" is preferable.
    – Luke Sawczak
    Commented Jan 26, 2018 at 21:41
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    @LukeSawczak I don't understand Ngrams all that well, but would this have captured all occurrences of instances like "she didn't help me either." If so, I'm not so sure it's hard to argue with it, at all. In this context, me neither is far more common in my piece of the U.S.
    – joiedevivre
    Commented Jan 27, 2018 at 3:08
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    @joiedevivre Good point. In fact, forcing capital letters shows the opposite trend.
    – Luke Sawczak
    Commented Jan 27, 2018 at 3:23
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    @LukeSawczak It does depend where you are. Both me either and me neither are common in most (but not all!) of the United States; in regions where both are heard, it's largely an idiosyncratic choice made by the speaker. In most of the rest of the world, me either is rarely heard or not heard at all, and in those places it tends to sound so strange people think it's an error. That's why I encourage learners to use me neither, which works everywhere, although in my own dialect me either is perfectly acceptable.
    – user230
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 3:03

1 Answer 1

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5

The first option with the comma doesn't produce an acceptable sentence. The comma in this instance is purely style, not grammar.

Too has a positive polarity. It can't be used to confirm a negative.

A very common confirmation of a negative is neither:

— I don't want to eat the pizza.
— Me neither.

More formally (either because of the inversion or because of attention to the subject case):

— Neither do I.

Note that this becomes either when the verb already has a "not".

— I don't want to eat the kebab.
— Hmm. I don't either.

Because of this mildly tangled rule, people combine the two (to me in Canada this sounds like child speech and is a less common reply across English books):

— I don't want to eat the focaccia.
— Me either.

The following is also a valid option, but it's in a high register, perhaps even pretentious:

— I don't want to eat the lox.
— Nor (do) I.

Now, your second option is more interesting because it's closer to the edge of correctness:

— I don't want to eat the rogan josh.
— I too don't want to eat the rogan josh.

This sort of thing can be heard in spontaneous conversation, but I think it's just the result of not anticipating the end of your sentence. It's mildly humourous and seems to require an odd parsing of the verbal clause, almost as if "not-want" were an indivisible, positive polarity verb like "refuse".

Finally, note that this sentence is perfectly fine:

— I don't want to eat the shrimp scampi too.

However, it means that the speaker doesn't want to eat shrimp scampi in addition to something else she already ate, rather than in addition to someone else who doesn't want to eat shrimp scampi. (Here, "too" attaches to the positive verb "eat" rather than the negated verb "want".)

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  • Instead of your final example, can you say I won't eat the shrimp scampi too. instead to convey the same meaning? That is, in the won't sentence, can too attach to the verb eat rather than to won't?
    – JK2
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 3:20
  • @JK2 Yup, that's fine too.
    – Luke Sawczak
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 4:06

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