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Curious George
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 11:29 am
Post subject: "many books" vs. "many a book" |
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Could anyone tell me the semantic differences between "many books" and "many
a book", with some examples?
Curious G.
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Daniel James
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:44 pm
Post subject: Re: "many books" vs. "many a book" |
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In article news:<2sepouF1jl121U1@uni-berlin.de>, Curious George wrote:
| Quote: | Could anyone tell me the semantic differences between "many books" and "many
a book", with some examples?
|
"Many a book" sounds old fashioned, today. Most people would use many books
instead.
An important grammatical difference between them is that "many a book" is
singular in form while "many books" is plural.
So:
Many a book has a red cover.
Many books have red covers.
"Many a book" is used to talk about a single book of a common type (one book
chosen from among many), "many books" refers to a large number of books.
Cheers,
Daniel. |
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Ross Howard
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:53 pm
Post subject: Re: "many books" vs. "many a book" |
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On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:44:41 +0100, Daniel James
<wastebasket@nospam.aaisp.org> wrought:
| Quote: | In article news:<2sepouF1jl121U1@uni-berlin.de>, Curious George wrote:
Could anyone tell me the semantic differences between "many books" and "many
a book", with some examples?
"Many a book" sounds old fashioned, today. Most people would use many books
instead.
|
True, although it's worth pointing out that several expressions with
"many a + N (sing)" remain very idomatic -- "many a time" (as a
synonym for "often") is one example.
--
Ross Howard
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Stewart Gordon
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 9:28 pm
Post subject: Re: "many books" vs. "many a book" |
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Curious George wrote:
| Quote: | Could anyone tell me the semantic differences between "many books" and "many
a book", with some examples?
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IGTI "many a book" means "each of many books". It's a bit like the
difference between "every book" and "all books".
But I'm not sure how useful it is in practice....
Stewart. |
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Skitt
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:10 am
Post subject: Re: "many books" vs. "many a book" |
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Stewart Gordon wrote:
| Quote: | Curious George wrote:
Could anyone tell me the semantic differences between "many books"
and "many a book", with some examples?
IGTI "many a book" means "each of many books". It's a bit like the
difference between "every book" and "all books".
But I'm not sure how useful it is in practice....
|
Many a tear has to fall, but it's all in the game.
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/ |
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meirman
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 1:52 pm
Post subject: Re: "many books" vs. "many a book" |
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In alt.english.usage on Tue, 5 Oct 2004 11:10:05 -0700 "Skitt"
<skitt99@comcast.net> posted:
| Quote: | Stewart Gordon wrote:
Curious George wrote:
Could anyone tell me the semantic differences between "many books"
and "many a book", with some examples?
IGTI "many a book" means "each of many books". It's a bit like the
difference between "every book" and "all books".
But I'm not sure how useful it is in practice....
Many a tear has to fall, but it's all in the game.
|
[Shirley]
Many a new face will please my eye,
Many a new love will find me.
Never've I once looked back to sigh
Over the romance behind me.
Many a new day will dawn before I do!
Many a light lad may kiss and fly,
A kiss gone by is bygone;
Never've I asked an August sky,
"Where has last July gone?"
Never've I wandered through the rye,
Wonderin' where has some guy gone~
Many a new day will dawn before I do!
....
Many a red sun will set,
Many a blue moon will shine, before I do!
s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
now in Baltimore 20 years |
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Donna Richoux
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 4:30 pm
Post subject: Re: "many books" vs. "many a book" |
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meirman <meirman@invalid.com> wrote:
| Quote: | "Skitt <skitt99@comcast.net> posted:
Curious George wrote:
Could anyone tell me the semantic differences between "many books"
and "many a book", with some examples?
|
[snip discussion]
| Quote: |
Many a tear has to fall, but it's all in the game.
[Shirley]
Many a new face will please my eye,
Many a new love will find me.
Never've I once looked back to sigh
Over the romance behind me.
Many a new day will dawn before I do!
Many a light lad may kiss and fly,
A kiss gone by is bygone;
...
Many a red sun will set,
Many a blue moon will shine, before I do!
|
More songs:
There is a House in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
It's been the ruin of many a poor girl,
and God I know I'm one. [Yes, there are other versions.]
And this old parlor song:
Many a heart is aching,
If you could read them all,
Many the hopes that have vanished
After the ball.
Then there's the old saying "Many a mickle makes a muckle" which we're
told is based on a mistake, since "muckle" means the same as "mickle".
When examples of a phrase are more from old songs and poems than daily
speech, you can figure it's on its way out. It's like googling on a word
and finding that the first twenty-five hits are dictionary entries only.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux |
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mb
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 12:48 pm
Post subject: Re: "many books" vs. "many a book" |
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Stewart Gordon <smjg_1998@yahoo.com> wrote
| Quote: | IGTI "many a book" means "each of many books". It's a bit like the
difference between "every book" and "all books".
But I'm not sure how useful it is in practice....
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Doesn't "practice" include stylistic variation and connotative changes? |
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