Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 19:51:10 EDT From: Arnold Zwicky Subject: Re: DEG ADJ of a N what i am about to say in print about this is that this use of OF is presumably an extension of the rule for NPs with quantity (rather than degree) modifiers like MORE, LESS, ENOUGH, A BIT, in combination with singular count nouns: MORE OF A LIAR, ENOUGH OF A LINGUIST, A BIT OF A CHARMER. people who have the OF A i talked about have it *exactly* where others have modifiers with A (HOW BIG A DOG etc.). so what i'm saying is that there is no "intrusive" OF at all, but rather an extension of a widespread rule for "special" modifiers of N (those that don't just combine with bare N, but take indef.art + N): use the "flag" OF. what i'm saying is that those of us who say HOW BIG A DOG etc. have an extra wrinkle in our grammars; the OF-flagged NP is what we should expect for a dependent that combines with a full NP, but instead there is no flag. arnold