Not A Newbie, but Maybe Worth a Mention

[Neal Whitman]

I blogged about attributive adjectives phrases involving 'too' a few years
ago (http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2004/07/24/it-takes-too-baby/) and
found some examples involving mass nouns and plural nouns like yours. I was
looking for examples with the intrusive 'of', and found things like "too big
of paper". For some reason, I didn't finish the job and look for examples
fitting the frame 'too * a [mass noun or plural noun]', but I think I will
now.

Neal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Harris" <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 7:35 AM
Subject: Not A Newbie, but Maybe Worth a Mention


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
> Subject:      Not A Newbie, but Maybe Worth a Mention
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This is one of those constructions I've heard for many a year,
> and sort of cringed at because it _so_ feels incorrect, somehow:
>
> From an LA Times story this morning on the high school grade
> achievements of Asians vs Latinos:
>
> "I had an Asian friend, but he didn't necessarily get _that great a
> grades_."
>
> I instinctively know what it means, but I'm not so sure how this and
> other speakers 'justify' it.
> Any thoughts?
> dh
>
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