Paul,

   Once again, I'm still not sure why, my computer has sent a message
prematurely.>(Is there a button I'm accidentally hitting that it reads
as "send"?) I wanted to add that for the other meanings, which all have
the notion of singularity, "very" is redundant. I think your students
are using a meaning ("unusual" rather than "singular") that is becoming
more common. Without immediate access to the OED, I can't testify to
how recent that is.
    As with most attempts to forestall change, you are are probably taking
arms against the sea. The singular notion that once went with
uniqueness might be worth trying to preserve, but your students have
already moved on. The language goes its own way.

Craig


Doesn't the 'each' automatically make the 'other' singular?
>
>   Paul D.
>
>   Speaking of redundancy, my students often struggle against the notion
> that "very unique" doesn't make sense to me.
>
> stein <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>    Here is your posting Joanne.
>   Thank you, Herb and Paul for responding to my question.
>   Dalia
>   -------Original Message-------
>
>     From: Johanna Rubba
>   Date: 03/15/06 02:51:00
>   To: stein
>   Cc: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>   Subject: Re: Blue Color; each other
>
>
>   Dalia,
>
>   I wonder if you could post this for me:  (Thanks!)
>
>   "I like  the blue color" could be another example of the tendency
>   towards redundant expressions which seems to be strong in English right
>   now. My students often write things like "equally as good"; there's the
>   old "refer back"; "both my sister and brother share this tendency"; and
>   others that don't come readily to mind.  I can imagine someone
>   responding to a question like "Which color shirt do you like best?"
>   with "The blue color." "Color" links the answer to the question, and
>   puts the queried word ("which color") in the answer.
>
>   I also have a query about "each other" -- how do we make it possessive,
>   as in
>
>   "They are always snooping into each other's business."  Should it be <
>   each others' > ? I keep doing a Gestalt  shift on this; right now the
>   first one looks right. How about a clear more-than-two:
>
>   "The students then proofread each other's papers." Here, the <'s> looks
>   wrong; the coreference with the plural "students" is getting in the
>   way.
>
>   Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
>   Linguistics Minor Advisor
>   English Department
>   California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
>   E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>   Tel.: 805.756.2184
>   Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
>   Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
>   URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
>
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