[Ads-l] intrusive "of" intrudes further

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, it's the definite "the" that struck me.

A mere slip of the tongue?

That's what they said the first time King Alfred dropped a case-ending.

JL

On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 3:11 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: intrusive "of" intrudes further
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > On Jun 11, 2015, at 2:58 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET> =
> wrote:
> >=20
> > This is the first time in my recollection that I've seen it intrude =
> into constructions where the "how ADJ" is predicative rather than =
> attributive.
> >=20
> > Neal
>
> I don't find it particularly odd.  Googling "I/You don't know how good =
> of an idea" or "...how big of a relief" or whatever produces scads of =
> hits that seem totally natural to me. Ditto, say, this very sequence as =
> it appears in "Beyond that I don't know how large of an area you have to =
> scour or what".  Or is there a condition that would rule out the example =
> below while allowing the ones above?  Is it the definite ("the area")?  =
> Maybe I'm missing something. =20
>
> LH
> >=20
> > On 6/11/2015 2:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      intrusive "of" intrudes further
> >> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
> >>=20
> >> New York State Police spokeswoman:
> >>=20
> >> "I cannot tell you how large of the area is we're searching in."
> >>=20
> >> JL
> >>=20
> >=20
> > --=20
> > Dr. Neal Whitman
> > Lecturer, ESL Composition
> > School of Teaching and Learning
> > College of Education and Human Ecology
> > Arps Hall
> > 1945 North High Street
> > whitman.11 at osu.edu
> > (614) 260-1622
> >=20
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.americandialect.=
> org&d=3DAwIC-g&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsS=
> xPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3Dqctl0HH63wURh4hdTjC43FWshtOXiRiqpDd4IVXO6GQ&s=3DvDMwHI=
> uSkR1OAA26z6d88N_HEmzCBhaNs8wIyk7cnzo&e=3D=20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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