LL-L "Grammar" 2010.03.17 (04) [EN]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 17 March 2010 - Volume 04*
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From: Brooks, Mark <mark.brooks at twc.state.tx.us>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2010.03.17 (03) [EN]

Paul Anisman wrote: “so that an utterance such as  "there's three books on
the table" has become extremely widespread across all socioeconomic groups,
while "there's books on the table" remains a more stigmatized form.”

Perhaps I can speak only for myself, but I don’t find any of Ron’s examples
to sound “wrong” even the ones with the asterisks. In fact, they seem
completely interchangeable to me regardless of contraction or an adjective
of quantity. I have lived all but 2 of my 59 years in Texas. My parents grew
up in Tennessee, so we speak a Southern US dialect.
Mark Brooks

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From: KarlRein at aol.com
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2010.03.17 (03) [EN]

Dear Lowlanders:
Two things occur to me about this pedantic discussion about the number of a
verb used with "a number of ....s" and the like:
1.  While "there's" is easy to say and normal to hear, "there're" is clumsy
at best.  Therefore the latter is on the way out, as far as I can see,
because of phonetic issues, not syntactic issues..
2.  While there is all this talk about "a number of ..." and "a few of ...",
further observation would show up other words referring to a "collection of
...", and usage varies according to the word.  For instance, "a lot of my
friends were invited" is a normal sequence, while "a lot of my friends was
invited" falls into the category of "they was invited", that is, substandard
English.  Period.  Similarly "a bunch of bananas" falls into a different
category.  By talking about "a number of ..." and "a few ..." is fine, but
only if we admit that the issue is about a couple of words and their usage,
and that there are no conclusions to be drawn about the grammar of the
English language as a whole.  A whole slew of native speakers no doubt agree
with me. (Or, doesn't it? )
Karl Reinhardt


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