"some many"?

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:54 PM -0400 6/11/09, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>But as a specificity marker, "some" is not going to reduce, and
>reduction seems essential to this eggcornage.
>
>Herb

I'm not sure that's the case.  Is "so many" more likely to be heard
as the reduced "sm many" or the unreduced "some many"?

LH

>
>On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 9:09 PM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> 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:      Re: "some many"?
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  At 8:45 PM -0400 6/11/09, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>>>This is the first eggcorn I've seen that violates a syntactic
>>>cooccurrence restriction.  "Some" and "many" don't cooccur, so what
>>>does it say about English speakers who write this eggcorn?  Clearly
>>>it's a feature of writing rather than of speech, although it seems to
>>>arise from the phonetic identity of reduced "so" before /m/ and
>>>reduced "some."  What doesn't make sense is how something that isn't
>>>syntactically possible shows up as the written form for [sm-'mEni].
>>>
>>>Herb
>>
>>  I'm not sure it's all that unlikely on syntactic grounds.  "Some
>>  three", "Some five or six", etc. occur, so why not "some many"?
>>  "Some several" also occurs widely, although I'd never say it, and
>>  there's no likely reanalysis in that case.  What's odd about "some
>>  many" to me is more the semantics, but perhaps here (as with "some
>>  three", "some several"), the "some" functions as a specificity marker
>>  for the relevant speakers--"Three/Several/Many X that I have in
>>  mind..."
>>
>>  LH
>>
>>>
>>>On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 10:44 AM, Laurence
>>>Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> 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:      Re: "some many"?
>>>>
>>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>   At 9:17 PM +0800 6/11/09, Randy Alexander wrote:
>>>>>On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 8:10 PM, Tom
>>>>>Zurinskas<truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>    The "some many" quote was written at this site.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    =20
>>>>>>
>>>>>    >
>>>>>http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2009/06/10/bring-the-quick-launch-toolba=
>>>>>    > r-back-in-windows-7/
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    You bring up an intersting point. ? We don't know from quote marks
>>>>>>if it's a=
>>>>>>    ? written quote or spoken quote. ? We need a different symbol. ?
>>>>>>We'll make th=
>>>>>>    at `"yak yak yak"`=2C unless there is a precedent. ? The symbol
>>>>>>(`) is locat=
>>>>>>    ed on my keyboard at top row left with the tilde (~). ? I don't
>>>>>>know the nam=
>>>>>>    e.
>>>>>
>>>>>If we provide a link, then whether the quote was spoken or written
>>>>>should be obvious.
>>>>>
>>>>   Or we can google "some many" and find not just some but many
>>>>   instances, at least some (if not many) of which do seem to be
>>>>   eggcornish reconstructions of "so many".  Some may be from non-native
>>>>   speakers--
>>>>
>>>>   why are some many girl getting pregant so young these days?
>>>>
>>>>http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/lifestyle-discussion/why-are-some-many-girl-getting-pregant-so-young-these-days/t.50698569_16/?
>>>>
>>>>   Many people feel confused why there are some many different prices on
>>>>   so called "BB/CC" grade of Chinese Poplar plywood?
>>>>   http://www.globalholz.de/China-Plywood-Grade_and_Construction.doc
>>>>
>>>>   Perhaps we can combine this thread with the earlier one on the
>>>>   consequences of English globalizing to China.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   LH
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
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>
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