Not A Newbie, but Maybe Worth a Mention

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 10:36 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> At 8:36 AM -0400 7/16/08, Neal Whitman wrote:
>>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.
>
> We've discussed that here too (I recall finding a few examples), and
> it's probably also shown up on Language Log.  Ben, Arnold?

Most relevant is Larry's Apr. 2004 thread, "ADJ (of) a -- where's the plural?":

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0404c&L=ads-l&P=3777

with this example from sports radio:

"You can't leave Gordon and Anderson alone--they're too good a shooters."

Arnold has touched on "of" with exceptional degree markers ("too ADJ
of a N") on ADS-L and Language Log, but I don't recall seeing any
further discussion of this particular plural-noun construction.


--Ben Zimmer

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