"of which...of"

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

Barbara's reading is the one I had too. It's "phenomena" that the relative clause is describing not "cause". One 'of' is licensed by 'cause' and the last 'of' is licensed by 'ignorant'.

-Matt Gordon

On May 18, 2012, at 2:13 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:

> Which two of the three ofs are you referring to? I believe the second and
> third are the same.
> DanG
>
>
> On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Barbara Need <bhneed at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "of which...of"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> But the two _of_s are different--at least in the example below:
>>
>> The early mariner is ignorant of the cause  of numerous phenomena.
>>
>> Barbara
>>
>> Barbara Need
>> Etna, NY
>>
>> On 17 May 2012, at 7:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>>> Unless I miss my guess, this truly nonstandard construction is usually
>>> associated with latter-day neophyte writers.
>>>
>>> However, here's a 1928 ex. from an academic writer that sailed through
>>> copy-editing. I assume it was a slip of the pen:
>>>
>>>
>>> 1928 Angelo S. Rappoport _Superstitions of Sailors_ (London: S.
>>> Paul) vii:
>>> It may be attributed to three sources, viz.: Firstly, the
>>> interpretation
>>> and explanation of numerous phenomena actually observed, but the
>>> cause of
>>> which the early mariner was still ignorant of.
>>
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