LL-L "Grammar" 2010.03.17 (03) [EN]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 17 March 2010 - Volume 03*
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From: Paul Anisman <panisman at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2010.03.16 (05) [EN]

Hi, Paul - I would suggest we also look at the function of the contracted
form, "there's".  In recent years, in American English, the use of this
contraction seems to have collapsed the differences between "there is" and
"there are"....but only when it precedes an adjective of quantity....so that
an utterance such as  "there's three books on the table" has become
extremely widespread across all socioeconomic groups, while "there's books
on the table" remains a more stigmatized form.

If you look at the list of sentences (below) that Ron provided in his post,
and if you substitute "there's" for each instance of "there is/there are",
I'd say that all of these utterances have become acceptable in American
English....provided they're preceded by the contracted form.
--Paul

 From Ron's post--
(01) There *are* *several* *books* on the shelf.
(02) *There *is* *a few* books on the shelf. (substandard)
(03) There *are* *a few* *books* on the shelf.
(04) *There *is* *a **number** of* books on the shelf.
(05) There *are* *a number of* *books* on the shelf.
(06) There *is* *a bunch of* books on the shelf.
(07) *There *are* *a bunch of* *books* on the shelf.

But I believe--and please correct me if I’m wrong--that “number”
*can*determine plural if it is modified; e.g. ...

(08) There *is* *a great number of* books on the shelf.
(09) (*)There *are* *a great number of* *books* on the shelf. (?)
(10) There *is* *a small number of* books on the shelf.
(11) (*)There *are* *a small number of* *books* on the shelf. (?)

From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
 Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2010.03.14 (04) [EN]

Hi Ron,

I disagree that "There *is* *a **number** of* books on the shelf" is
ungrammatical.  "Number" is singular so strictly that is the correct form,
if you wanted to be pedantic about it.  Most people would still probably say
"are" though.  In fact nearly all of those forms would be used by many
different people even in "educated" speech, and wouldn't really stand out as
wrong, other than "There *is* *a few* books on the shelf, which has an odd
ring to it.

Paul
Derby
England

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