[Ads-l] dative & accusitive prepositions

[Herb Stahlke]

I've read the same thing of "The more the merrier," where the first "the"
was instrumental.

On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 9:34 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: dative & accusitive prepositions
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> WB:  Seem to recall some claim that the <the> in <nevertheless> goes back
> to an old Old English instrumental <thy:>, lit. 'never less than that', as
> a relic of an OV comparative structure. Believe it or naught. Comparable to
> the Latin ablative of comparison; e.g. Cato est Cicerone eloquentior 'Cato
> is more eloquent than Cicero'; something like 'from (the perspective of)
> Cicero, Cato ...'
>
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