couple (was Re: assorted comments)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 4/5/07, Mark A. Mandel <mamandel at ldc.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> scripsit:
>
> >>>
>
> My _Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage_ (a great reference IMHO
> ... and inexpensive!) gives 1.3 pages to "couple [of]". It says "couple"
> began to lose its "of" (and behave like "few" or "dozen") in the 1920's.
>
> The book says this 'adjective' "couple" (without "of") is "firmly
> established in American speech and in general writing (though not the more
> elevated varieties)". This seems about right to me.
>
> <<<

Unmentioned by MWDEU is the regional distribution for adjectival
"couple", besides a suggestion that its use in the 1920s could be
found in "the speech of the middle-class Middle West", based on the
fact that Sinclair Lewis used it in _Babbitt_. It hasn't completely
taken over all dialects of AmEng, however -- most speakers in the New
York City area do not seem to use it, even though it can be found in
other nearby dialect regions (e.g., central-west New Jersey where I
grew up).

See also this discussion from last year:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0605E&L=ADS-L&P=R1531


--Ben Zimmer

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