all of the sudden, one at the time, still in the bed

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:41 AM -0700 9/6/06, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>>--and no
>>doubt very much like the effect of my "stand on line" to many non-New
>>Yorkers.
>
>yes, you get that "Martian! Martian!" look.
>
>my pennsylvania-dutchism "a scissors" provokes a similar response.
>
Really?  I'm surprised--I'm sure I've encountered "a scissors" all my
life, I assume because it's so much more natural and economical than
"a pair of scissors" (although that can't be the whole story, since I
don't recall encountering "a pants"), while "stand on line" (vs. in
line) or "all of the sudden" (vs. a sudden) involve a totally
arbitrary choice as far as I can tell; at least the regionally
restricted forms don't appear to be more logical than the more widely
distributed variants in those cases.

LH

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