Coach Paterno and the syntactic blind alley

[Joel S. Berson]

Not answering Larry's request for a term, but:

At 11/10/2011 10:03 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>...
>either she or I am/is/are going

"Either she or I is going" doesn't immobilize me; "am" and "are"
do.  Does the first (pro)noun act on me more strongly than the second?

>...
>?--when I was reminded of one of my favorite examples this morning
>by yet another discussion of the denouement of Joe Paterno's career
>at Penn State.  Paterno was described by Mike Greenberg on Mike &
>Mike (ESPN radio) as:
>
>"one of the most, if not THE most, legendary coaches of all time"
>
>Doesn't quite work, of course,

Similarly, this is OK for me.  Because "one of the most" is somehow
stronger than "if ..."?

>and the singular agreement option is even worse:
>
>"one of the most, if not THE most legendary coach of all time"

Joel

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