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- Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
- Path: sparky!uunet!UB.com!daver!sgiblab!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uunet.ca!rose!usenet
- From: peter.churchill@rose.com (peter churchill)
- Subject: more and more
- Organization: Rose Media Inc, Toronto, Ontario.
- Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 17:41:24 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Nov15.174126.2214@rose.com>
- Sender: usenet@rose.com (Usenet Gateway)
- X-Gated-By: Usenet <==> RoseMail Gateway (v1.70)
- Lines: 46
-
-
- Date Entered: 11-15-92 12:35
-
-
- roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig) replies to:
-
- kaygee@hardy.u.washington.edu (Kevin Giansante) who writes:
-
- | >Which of the following is correct, and why?
- |
- | > a) "There is more than one."
- |
- | > b) "There are more than one."
- |
- | >CORRECT answers only, please. Let's not waste bandwidth width
-
- <wasted bandwidth omitted>
-
- || Anyway, there is more than one way to skin a cat. But in response
- || to "How many are there?" one might say, "There are more than one."
- || One would *certainly* say "There are more than two."
-
- Let's add the reason to this.
-
- There is more than one way to skin a cat. I say again: there are more
- ways than one to skin a cat.
-
- The reason for the change from _is_ to _are_ follows something
- grammarians call "attraction". The sense of "more than one way" is
- plural but the verb is "attracted" to "one" and "way" which are
- singular and thus takes the singular form.
-
- Simply by changing the form of the phrase by changing the singular
- "way" to the plural "ways" and sticking it closer to the verb where
- its power of "attraction" is stronger induced the verb to follow it
- into the plural.
-
- Thus, in the original question, "There _is_ more than one way" is the
- more acceptable usage than the other.
-
- Regards: *PC* <peter.churchill@rose.com> --far enough out of Toronto!
-
- -- More is dead, they told Henry VIII---
- ---
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