Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

USAGE: "all"

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Sunday, June 29, 2003, 14:35
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_).  It's not quite a double accusative, since
it works in the subject place, too; the rest of Mama's line could
just as grammatically have been "and they all love me".   The word
"all" is somehow modifying the pronoun ("them" or "they"), but it's
not just an oddly-placed adjective; for one thing, adjectives can't
attributively modify pronouns in English.  Is it just a commaless
appositive?

-Mark

Reply

Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>