Re: USAGE: "all"

On Sun, Jun 29, 2003 at 09:39:18AM -0700, Costentin Cornomorus wrote:
> > I'm wondering what the word "all" is doing in
> > sentences such as "I love them all" (. . . "and all of them love
> > me", sang Matron "Mama" Morton in _Chicago_).
>
> Personally, I'd call it an intensive. The grammar
> of the sentence doesn't change when you remove
> "all"; but there is a slight shift in nuance.
Semantically, the "all" is clarifying the meaning of the
pronoun.  "I love them."  "Which of them?"  "All of them."

> Same with "God bless us all..." Maybe even with
> "yall" (<you all). [I don't have yall as a
> plural; for me you all is an intensive.]
Well, whether it's your regular plural or not, it is another
example of the phenomenon I'm asking about.  The semantics
differ but the grammar is the same. :)

> > Is it just a commaless appositive?
>
> Where would you put a comma and why?
I wouldn't; I was just remarking that *if* it is an appositive (which
means that the "all" is actually being equated with the "them"),
then it's the commaless variety.  In other examples where a word is
unquestionably an appositive, English sometimes uses a comma to set
it off and sometimes not.  Compare "My brother, Jacob, is coming over
this weekend." with "My brother Jacob is coming over this weekend."
A becommaed version of "I love them all" might be "I love them,
all of them."

> beuyont alch geont la ciay la cina
> mangeiont alch geont y faues la lima;
>      pe' ne m' molestyont
>      que faciont
> doazque y facyont in rima.
That looks interesting.  What language is it?

-Mark

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