Each?

[Randy Alexander]

Could you not say "each brother is in love with the same woman"?

Isn't their separateness what causes the conflict? I would think that
emphasizing that might be something that contributes to selecting "each"
over "both" (although there's no grammatical problem with either).
On Mar 21, 2014 3:33 PM, "Dan Goncharoff" <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Each?
>
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>
> Read today in the NYTimes book review section:
>
> "Many of Ms. Antopol's stories pivot on role reversals. In one of them, two
> brothers in the Israeli Army -- each is in love with the same woman -- see
> their tortured relationship upended when one is gravely injured."
>
> I would have written 'both are' instead of 'each is', and 'each is' strikes
> me as wrong, in that it denotes a separateness that is violated when
> followed by 'the same woman'.
>
> Am I completely off base, or is this just a matter of 'to each his own'?
>
>
> DanG
>
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