[Ads-l] "all of our goal in life"

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jun 5, 2016, at 12:12 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
> 
> Could some say "all of ours goal"?  Or "all of us's goal"?
> 
> 
> 
I've heard the latter as another pis aller.  Seems like in principle that should be better.  Here's an online (non-Language Log) discussion of the gap and its possible fillers:

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4994/all-of-uss-friend

For me, "all of ours goal" is less imaginable than "all of our goal". YMMV.

LH
> 
> 
>      From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
> Sent: Sunday, June 5, 2016 8:44 AM
> Subject: [ADS-L] "all of our goal in life"
> 
> On TV news this morning, I caught this excerpt from Bill Clinton's eulogy for Muhammad Ali yesterday:
> 
> "So by the time he died, who he was as a person was greater than his legend, which should be all of our goal in life."
> cf. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.inquisitr.com_3169223_barack-2Dobama-2Dmuhammad-2Dali-2Dshook-2Dup-2Dthe-2Dworld_&d=AwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=YIXZH8p7-7wvSGxcXrIQEhbYF3BXNrcE13JIKxg3Ilc&s=I97yWSyzBeB2R5qz7Jq3EHjYArw6n4gr4wlXufV3DVI&e=  
> 
> 
> This is one of those paint-oneself-into-a-corner constructions.  This version doesn't sound right to me, but "all of our goals" in life is worse in this case.  The meaning is clear:  "a/the goal of all of us".  But that version with a prepositional phrase sounds stilted.  I believe Arnold has discussed similar no-win situations in morphosyntax, possibly including the classic "one of my friends' father(s)" (for "the father of one of my friends").
> 
> LH  
> 
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