more soccer broadcasts

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Damien Hall <D.Hall at kent.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> Victor said:
>
> > 'First, another reversal:
> >
> > "I don't know where the two goals are going to come from, let alone one." '
>
> This is quite common, I think.  I can remember at least one occasion where a
> highly-educated speaker was reviewing a paper of mine and was convinced
> that I had the phrases in the frame 'X, let alone Y' the wrong way around.  I
> think there may genuinely be two standards going around as to how to use
> this collocation:  one more minority than the other, certainly, but both present.

For more on this and related reversals, see this post and comments thereon:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2994

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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