Those ones

[Ed Keer]

--- Dodi Schultz <SCHULTZ at COMPUSERVE.COM> wrote:
> Ed Keer asks for opinions on:
>
>   >> I like these cars much better than those ones.
>
> The word "ones" is superfluous; the sentence is
> therefore clumsy.


I agree. But, I wonder why it's superfluous when a
sentence like:

I like this car much better than that one.

is fine. I could imagine a generative syntax/semantics
analysis. Just wondering if anyone was aware of any
work on it.

Also, it seems that "those ones" was perfectly fine in
earlier English, at least according to Jespersen. So
is this new?

Ed

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