[Ads-l] intrusive "of" intrudes further

[Ben Zimmer]

Ah, here we go:

http://www.tout.com/u/FeliciaKrieg
(2nd video down: "More from press conference" -- relevant bit starts
at about 0:35)

I hear it as: "I can't tell you how large of the area is that we've
searched thus far."

So CNN just left out the crucial "of".

On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
> FWIW, the CNN transcript has:
>
> http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1506/11/cnr.06.html
> "You know, the situation is still fluid. And at this point, I can't
> tell you how large the area is that we've searched thus far."
> (Jennifer Fleishman, spokeswoman, New York State Police Department)
>
> I haven't found video of the news conference, but it should show up
> soon on https://archive.org/tv.
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 9:17 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
>>
>> I don't think I explained clearly what I meant when I wrote, "This is the first time
>> in my recollection that I've seen it intrude into constructions where the 'how ADJ'
>> is predicative rather than attributive."
>>
>> Usually, I see these constructions in situations like "I don't know how big (of) a
>> boat we'll need," where the AdjP "how big (of)" modifies "boat" (and appears in
>> the strange AdjP-Det-N syntax that these constructions have). It's a little clearer
>> if we leave the WH-phrase in situ:
>>
>>         I don't know [we need [how big (of) a boat]].
>>
>> But in JL's example, if we leave the WH-phrase in situ, and undo the
>> relative-clause extraposition, we get
>>
>>
>>         I cannot tell you [[the area we're searching in] is [how large]].
>>
>> The AdjP is the complement of "is", not a modifier of "the area we're searching in".
>>
>> I'm inclined to call this a production error, a blend of the following:
>>
>>         I cannot tell you [how large (of) an area we're searching in].
>>         I cannot tell you [how large the area is that we're searching in.]
>>
>> On 6/11/2015 3:11 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Jun 11, 2015, at 2:58 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:
>>>>
>>>> This is the first time in my recollection that I've seen it intrude =
>>> into constructions where the "how ADJ" is predicative rather than =
>>> attributive.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> I don't find it particularly odd.  Googling "I/You don't know how good =
>>> of an idea" or "...how big of a relief" or whatever produces scads of =
>>> hits that seem totally natural to me. Ditto, say, this very sequence as =
>>> it appears in "Beyond that I don't know how large of an area you have to =
>>> scour or what".  Or is there a condition that would rule out the example =
>>> below while allowing the ones above?  Is it the definite ("the area")?  =
>>> Maybe I'm missing something. =20
>>>
>>>> On 6/11/2015 2:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> New York State Police spokeswoman:
>>>>>
>>>>> "I cannot tell you how large of the area is we're searching in."

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