EDM
EDM (exceptional degree marking) in English
Exceptional degree markers: A puzzle in internal and external syntax, OSU WPL 47.111-23 (1995)
Click to access exceptional-degree-markers.pdf
ODM (ordinary degree marking) vs. EDM (exceptional degree marking)
Just how interesting a construction is this? Explorations in the matching of internal and external syntax (very detailed handout for a Stanford Syntax Workshop, 12 March 2002)
Click to access deghead.hnd.pdf
section U on adajectival expressions in English, of subtypes O (“ordinary”) and X (“extraordinary” or “exceptional”)
…..
☛ AZ, 7/22/07: One will get you four more:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004737.html
four phenomena involving of, including (type B), with superlatives, as in: one of the most hazardous (of) medical episodes: two different constructions, with somewhat different meanings, but both standard
☛ 9/12/09: various of:
http://arnoldzwicky.org/2009/09/12/various-of/
pronominal various; with material posted to ADS-L in 8/09
☛ 10/20/09: WOO: The War On Of:
including Garner on “intrusive” or “superfluous” of in EDM
☛ 1/28/10: EDM/ODM and grade marking:
Ordinarily a degree modifier, like very, combines with an Adj head, like happy, to yield an expression with pretty much the distribution of the Adj on its own: you can think of very happy as an “expansion” of happy. This is ODM.
But a few degree modifiers work differently: they combine with a nominal expression with the indefinite article a(n), to yield a full NP: too/how big a dog. The result is a contrast between ODM a very big dog and EDM too big a dog.
… the degree modifier more can, in some circumstances, go either way [but inflectional comparatives occur only in ODM]
☛ 12/2/10: +of EDM in the comics:
in Zippy, with notes on the history and sociolinguistic status of +of EDM
☛ 9/20/11: +of EDM on the march:
extensions of +of EDM:
–of EDM with PL rather than SG head N
+of EDM with head Ns other than Count SGs: PL and Mass
EDM with comparative Adj: both –of and +of
EDM with ordinary degree modifiers (usually under negation)
EDM syntax with no degree modifier, but with not
as hell of a, with hell treated as an Adj
a Adj of a N
☛ 2/27/12: Ben Cohen:
+of EDM almost entirely an American thing; but now British exx.?
☛ 4/12/12: Innovative EDM:
not that good a looking guys ‘guys who are not that good-looking’, with three non-standard features: EDM with PL head; a + PL; splitting up of good-looking by the a
☛ ML, 8/30/12: As ADJ of NP as:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4153
+of EDM (“of-insertion”) with as
☛ 1/4/15: so few of a words:
http://arnoldzwicky.org/2015/01/04/so-few-of-a-words/
☛ 1/23/16: Fun with EDM:
http://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/01/23/fun-with-edm/
☛ 3/4/16: Trent Atkins, a great bottom:
http://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/03/04/trent-atkins-a-great-bottom/
any size of a dick
☛ 8/29/18: EDM +of +a :PL:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2018/08/29/edm-of-a-pl/
how good of a friends
☛ 12/10/18: A vernacular construction?:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2018/12/10/a-vernacular-construction/
historical how old of a cat