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Grammar and Linguistics > There is lots of tourists??
There is lots of tourists??
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abba
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But the idea is that speakers are the ones who create language no matter if it �s grammatically correct or not.In fact, when an expression, structure.... is widely used it becomes grammatically correct. |
17 Jan 2014
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cunliffe
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There �s + a plural is very common in speech, as other posters have mentioned. �There �s lots of... � �There �s some people at the door � etc, but not in formal writing, certainly not yet... You would have to write, �There are some people at the door. �
Language develops and changes over time and that is entirely positive. It is a tool for communication. If we had to stick to rigid rules, it would be the tail wagging the dog. However, it �s not so black and white. For example, many people say, �Sophia told Bruce and I that... � It will never become grammatically correct. Sorry abba.  
Just my twopenno �th.
Edit: In terms of irregular verbs (and I�m assuming the reference is to irregular past participles?) sorry, I don�t actually know many rules as I am a native speaker (pace almaz!) but I read somewhere that it is because from one source, we add �ed� but for other verbs, the stem changes, as in German... Peter, what are you on about? Are you telling me the English are not superior? I�m shocked to the core! Of course we are! 
I�m bored - anybody fancy a spat???  |
18 Jan 2014
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almaz
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cunliffe:
"many people say, �Sophia told Bruce and I that... � It will never become grammatically correct."
You �re referring to a type of coordination sometimes known as a nominative conjoined object and, dammit, there �s plenty of room to believe that it may already be accepted as grammatical (as you can see from the link, �between you and I� is considered "a fixed expression"). I take it you �re objecting to the use of nominative I, but in fact, none other than Noam Chomsky has suggested that such phrases are "barriers to the assignment of grammatical case" (that is, the whole compound - Bruce and I - is objective after told but that the individual components can be any bloody case they want). So there
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18 Jan 2014
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thanks for rising to the bait! For the record, we should have defined �grammatical �. Oh, I hate �between you and I �, pseudo-posh talk. I didn �t realise Naom Chomsky was English and therefore qualified to comment. 
. I am sorry to say the truth is, I haven �t really understood much of what you �ve said, but I will check the link a bit later.