"some many"?

[Herb Stahlke]

But as a specificity marker, "some" is not going to reduce, and
reduction seems essential to this eggcornage.

Herb

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 9:09 PM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "some many"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 8:45 PM -0400 6/11/09, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>>This is the first eggcorn I've seen that violates a syntactic
>>cooccurrence restriction.  "Some" and "many" don't cooccur, so what
>>does it say about English speakers who write this eggcorn?  Clearly
>>it's a feature of writing rather than of speech, although it seems to
>>arise from the phonetic identity of reduced "so" before /m/ and
>>reduced "some."  What doesn't make sense is how something that isn't
>>syntactically possible shows up as the written form for [sm-'mEni].
>>
>>Herb
>
> I'm not sure it's all that unlikely on syntactic grounds.  "Some
> three", "Some five or six", etc. occur, so why not "some many"?
> "Some several" also occurs widely, although I'd never say it, and
> there's no likely reanalysis in that case.  What's odd about "some
> many" to me is more the semantics, but perhaps here (as with "some
> three", "some several"), the "some" functions as a specificity marker
> for the relevant speakers--"Three/Several/Many X that I have in
> mind..."
>
> LH
>
>>
>>On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 10:44 AM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>  Subject:      Re: "some many"?
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  At 9:17 PM +0800 6/11/09, Randy Alexander wrote:
>>>>On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 8:10 PM, Tom Zurinskas<truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>   The "some many" quote was written at this site.
>>>>>
>>>>>   =20
>>>>>
>>>>   >
>>>>http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2009/06/10/bring-the-quick-launch-toolba=
>>>>   > r-back-in-windows-7/
>>>>>
>>>>>   You bring up an intersting point. ? We don't know from quote marks
>>>>>if it's a=
>>>>>   ? written quote or spoken quote. ? We need a different symbol. ?
>>>>>We'll make th=
>>>>>   at `"yak yak yak"`=2C unless there is a precedent. ? The symbol
>>>>>(`) is locat=
>>>>>   ed on my keyboard at top row left with the tilde (~). ? I don't
>>>>>know the nam=
>>>>>   e.
>>>>
>>>>If we provide a link, then whether the quote was spoken or written
>>>>should be obvious.
>>>>
>>>  Or we can google "some many" and find not just some but many
>>>  instances, at least some (if not many) of which do seem to be
>>>  eggcornish reconstructions of "so many".  Some may be from non-native
>>>  speakers--
>>>
>>>  why are some many girl getting pregant so young these days?
>>>
>>>http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/lifestyle-discussion/why-are-some-many-girl-getting-pregant-so-young-these-days/t.50698569_16/?
>>>
>>>  Many people feel confused why there are some many different prices on
>>>  so called "BB/CC" grade of Chinese Poplar plywood?
>>>  http://www.globalholz.de/China-Plywood-Grade_and_Construction.doc
>>>
>>>  Perhaps we can combine this thread with the earlier one on the
>>>  consequences of English globalizing to China.
>>>
>>>
>>>  LH
>>>
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>>>
>>
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>
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