regional "most the CN"?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 12/15/2009 04:18 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>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".)

I have, elsewhere and previously, written "Funeral processions were
conducted in accordance with elaborate customs and conventions; many
were the attendees for prominent persons."  To stress the "many".

Joel

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