[Ads-l] No comment

[Dan Goncharoff]

I find it fascinating that language scholars find the sentence fascinating.

To me the sentence is a funny mix of German and English syntax, with the
added twist of inconsistency in English on pronoun usage.

I would say "more people have been to Russia than just me." A German wants
to put the verb at the end of the sentence, but you can't say 'me have' in
English, so it becomes 'I have', which has the benefit (to a German) of
correcting the pronoun.

It's wrong, but I see the route taken to get there.
 On Jan 30, 2015 11:56 PM, "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: No comment
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I had always thought that (the been-to-Russia pseudo-comparative, not =
> Wilson's mind-boggler) was a Barbara Partee example originally, but I =
> see the actual story is a bit more complicated and has its own Language =
> Log post:
>
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000860.html
>
> LH
>
>  =20
> On Jan 30, 2015, at 11:01 PM, Galen Buttitta wrote:
>
> > Reminds me of something that I think Jeff Punske said: "More people =
> have been to Russia than I have", although that was an intentional turn =
> of phrase to illustrate something about syntax, I think.
> >=20
> >> On Jan 30, 2015, at 22:26, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >>=20
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: No comment
> >> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
> >>=20
> >> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 12:55 AM, Galen Buttitta <
> >> satorarepotenetoperarotas3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>=20
> >>> Who's the source on that quote?
> >>=20
> >>=20
> >> =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.head-2Dfi.org_t_=
> 728006_sonys-2Dnew-2Dflagship-2D2014-2Dmdr-2Dz7_4140&d=3DAwIFAg&c=3D-dg2m7=
> zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3DslYRx=
> kuht19ntcNyWjtdiDcSMixxA_hRnFIim4r6rb4&s=3DJ9yOzlRAtMMyMsUO6Z_3TvSSxYV_IvY=
> MfGSZfymFrZw&e=3D=20
> >>=20
> >>=20
> >> --=20
> >> -Wilson
> >> -----
> >> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint =
> to
> >> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >> -Mark Twain
> >>=20
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> >=20
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