[Ads-l] "than how"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Maybe it's just a nominalizing of the entire commonplace phrase "how it is
(already)."

JL

On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 8:03 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "than how"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have to suspect influence from quantitative "how ADJ/ADV". Made-up
> examples:
>
>    - I don't care how long you've had it, it's still not yours.
>    - No matter how dark it is, that cat will always get home in time for
>    dinner.
>
> Mark
>
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 8:10 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > From a headphones site:
> >
> > "It'll make the [Sony MDR-]Z7 even darker _than how_ it is already."
> >
> > If I interpret the _how_ as "the way (that)," as in "that's _how_ it is"
> =
> > "that's _the way (that)_ it is," I understand why "than how it is"
> strikes
> > me as being as fully grammatical as simple "than it is," when it ought
> not
> > to. (Or should that be, "ought to not"?)
> >
> > Youneverknow.
> >
> >
>
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