Coach Paterno and the syntactic blind alley

[Laurence Horn]

On Nov 10, 2011, at 11:36 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> 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?

The reverse solution to that of "agreement with the nearest"?  More likely, the "is" probably reflects "agreement with the unmarked", which is certainly a strategy languages often use for such cases.  As noted, none of these options sounds quite right to me.
>
>> ...
>> ?--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 …"?

To judge from googling, the verdict is split--lots of plurals, lots of singulars.  Probably lots of people dissatisfied with the result either way.
I suspect you might get different intonation patterns, where the comma or parenthetical intonation favors the plural; this may correspond to your sense of strength.  I tried to indicate that with the commas:

One of the most, if not THE most, legendary coaches of all time
   --or perhaps: One of the most (if not THE most) legendary coaches of all time
One of the most, if not THE most legendary coach of all time

Again, both sound imperfect to me.

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org