"as good a guys"

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:32 PM -0700 5/25/07, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>FWIW, there's a similar thread in the archives starting at
>http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0404C&L=ADS-L&P=R2029&I=-3.
>BB

Oops.  I knew it sounded somewhat familiar, but I didn't realize it
was *that* familiar.  Nice to know it's a construction applicable to
both college *and* professional basketball!

LH

>
>Laurence Horn wrote:
>>I'm not sure we've discussed precisely this faute-de-mieux
>>construction, although it's related to phenomena we have touched on
>>from time to time...
>>
>>"The guys I coached here were as good a guys as I've ever dealt with."
>>--the reasonably articulate Jeff Van Gundy, recently dismissed coach
>>of the Houston Rockets, about the players on his former team, in
>>interview on WFAN a few minutes ago.
>>
>>I call it faute de mieux because there really isn't any better plural
>>of "as good a guy", although I suppose most speakers would come up
>>with "as good guys as..."   Seems like a good candidate for a
>>Jerry-Cohenian blend, "(He was) as good a guy as..." + "(They were)
>>good guys".
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org