<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">===============================================<br><b>L O W L A N D S - L - 17 March 2010 - Volume 03</b><br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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===============================================<br></font></div><font size="2"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Paul Anisman</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:panisman@gmail.com">panisman@gmail.com</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI">LL-L "Grammar" 2010.03.16 (05) [EN]</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
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....</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">provided </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">they're preceded by the
contracted form.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">--Paul</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
>From Ron's post--</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 153, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">
(01) There <b>are</b> <u>several</u> <b>books</b> on the shelf.<br>
(02) *There <b>is</b> <u>a <b>few</b></u> books on the shelf.
(substandard)<br>
(03) There <b>are</b> <u>a few</u> <b>books</b> on the shelf.<br>
(04) *There <b>is</b> <u>a </u><u><b>number</b></u><u> of</u> books on
the shelf.<br>
(05) There <b>are</b> <u>a number of</u> <b>books</b> on the shelf.<br>
(06) There <b>is</b> <u>a <b>bunch</b> of</u> books on the shelf.<br>
(07) *There <b>are</b> <u>a bunch of</u> <b>books</b> on the shelf.<br>
<br>
But I believe--and please correct me if I’m wrong--that “number” <i>can</i>
determine
plural if it is modified; e.g. ...<br>
<br>
(08) There <b>is</b> <u>a great <b>number</b> of</u> books on the shelf.<br>
(09) (*)There <b>are</b> <u>a great number of</u> <b>books</b> on the
shelf.
(?)<br>
(10) There <b>is</b> <u>a small <b>number</b> of</u> books on the shelf.<br>
(11) (*)There <b>are</b> <u>a small number of</u> <b>books</b> on the
shelf.
(?)</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 153, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></font>
<font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" size="2"><br></font><div style="margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">From: Paul Finlow-Bates <span><<a href="mailto:wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk" target="_blank">wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span><br>
</font><font size="2">
Subject: LL-L "Grammar"
2010.03.14 (04) [EN]<br></font><font size="2">
<br></font></div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><font size="2">Hi Ron,</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><font size="2"> </font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><font size="2">I
disagree that "</font><font size="2">There <b>is</b> <u>a </u><span><u><b>number</b></u></span><span><u>
of</u> 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 <b>is</b> <u>a <b>few</b></u> books on the shelf,
which has an odd ring to it. </span></font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><font size="2"><span></span> </font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><font size="2"><span>Paul</span></font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><font size="2"><span>Derby</span></font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);" size="2"><span>England</span></font><font size="2"><span></span></font></div><font size="2"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
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