regional "most the CN"?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 12/15/2009 04:07 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 4:01 PM -0500 12/15/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>At 12/15/2009 03:19 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>One of our graduate students, from Cleveland, reports that he has
>>>said "most the books" (= 'most of the books') all his life, and it
>>>shows up with 1.9 raw g-hits.  Googling also pulls up "some the
>>>books" (2.9 million) and "many the books", although Mike (from
>>>Cleveland) doesn't find those possible, only "most".
>>
>>In one construction, I might utter "many the books have I read"
>
>is this paraphrasable by "Many are the books I read" rather than
>"many of the books I read..."?

Paraphrasable, for me, by both
"Many are the books I have read"
or
"Many of the books I have read..."
although if pressed I might respond that the first two emphasize the
"many", while "many of ..." doesn't.
("Have" simply to identify the past action, same as in "many the
books have I read".)

Joel


>LH
>
>>(generally, or about some topic).  But I can't imagine saying "most
>>the books" or "some the books".  I would have to say "most/some of
>>the books I have read ...". (Raised in the Bronx.)
>>
>>Joel
>>
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>
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