Re: Losing languages ...

On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 04:05:09PM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> Mark J. Reed scripsit:
>
> > Ditto here.  In my case, I only use "the both" when both = all; that is,
> > there are only two, and I talked to all two of them.   Whereas I could
> > use "both" without "the" even if it was an incomplete set:
> >
> > "Two of the three candidates are here, and I've interviewed both of them."
>
> That's because the first clause narrows the scope of "candidates" for the
> second clause.  AFAICT, "both" *always* means "all two"; you can't say
> "*I saw both of the three candidates."
Fair enough.  But I might say "The candidates are here, and I've interviewed
the both of them.", but I would only do that if the fact that there were only
two candidates were established.   Otherwise I'd leave out "the" before
"both".

> --
> "I could dance with you till the cows           John Cowan
> come home.  On second thought, I'd              http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
> rather dance with the cows when you             http://www.reutershealth.com
> came home."  --Rufus T. Firefly                 jcowan@reutershealth.com

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