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Speaking as a non-white English speaker in Singapore, I think of the
phrase as being equally cringe-causing. I operate with the simple rule:
'lesser' is not an adverb (it's an adjective), 'less' can be an adverb!
Thus we have the Genesis account of the <i>greater</i> light to rule the
day and the <i>lesser</i> light to rule the night.<br><br>
Peter<br><br>
At 00.50 11/2/2005 +0700, Doug Cooper wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Hans provides an excellent argument
against deriving usage rules<br>
from corpora ;-). Rather than a long-winded discussion of
grammar,<br>
I'll just point out that 'less' would not be a meaningful
substitution<br>
for 'lesser' in any of the cases cited:<br><br>
> "lesser extent" (402), "lesser degree" (109),
"lesser of" (31),<br>
> "lesser mortals" (29), "lesser spotted
(eagle/woodpecker etc.)" (25).<br><br>
"Lesser used languages" strikes me as a typical PC
construction,<br>
prompted by the same motivation as 'less-abled,' 'less well-abled'<br>
and so on. My guess is that a less-well-educated writer (see,
it's<br>
infectious!) first derived it from the definitely un-PC 'lesser
languages.'<br>
I'm all for the sentiment, but as far as this particular phrase
goes,<br>
count me in as another cringing native speaker.<br><br>
Doug Cooper<br><br>
----- Original Message ----- <br>
From: "Hans Lindquist"
<hans.lindquist@hum.vxu.se><br><br>
> I don't know if native speakers cringe, but this is the
established<br>
technical term for this area of study, as can be seen on Google.<br>
><br>
> Quirk et al 1985 § 7.83c say: "Lesser is sometimes used in
comparison to a<br>
lower degree: lesser-known, in the same way as less
well-known."<br>
><br>
> Checking out 2-grams with a frequency of 3 or higher in the BNC
through<br>
Bill Fletchers PIE database, one finds "lesser developed" (38
instances) and<br>
"lesser known" (36) plus about 90 other 2-grams with lesser +
noun or other<br>
word classes. The most common of those are "lesser
extent"<br>
> (402), "lesser degree" (109), "lesser of" (31),
"lesser mortals" (29),<br>
"lesser spotted (eagle/woodpecker etc.)"
(25).</blockquote></body>
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