"some many"?

[Herb Stahlke]

It'll occur both ways.  "So" can have contrastive stress, or it can be
unstressed.  With unstressed "so" or "some," the /m/ becomes
ambisyllabic and the two phrases become phonetically identical.

Herb

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 11:08 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 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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