"as good a guys"

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:07 PM -0700 5/26/07, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>I sent this construction to a friend who responded: as good as any guys. BB

Well, that's close, but the difference between the two possible
singular versions

He's as good (of) a guy as any I've ever coached.
He's as good as any guy I've ever coached.

suggests that the substitution doesn't yield a perfect paraphrase.

LH

>
>Laurence Horn wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>Subject:      "as good a guys"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>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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