Timeline for you could do worse than + -ing
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 22, 2023 at 11:47 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | 'Do more than' = 'exceed' is an obvious synonym for one usage, and Crystal argues for lexemes as units of meaning. With 'do more than pay lip service', admittedly there's probably no single-word close synonym, but '[could] do more than paying lip service' can be rendered '[could] better/surpass paying lip service'. OLD classes 'improve on' as a lexeme ('phrasal verb'). | |
| May 22, 2023 at 2:09 | comment | added | JK2 | What exactly do you mean you'd analyze do more than as a unit in Politicians could do more than go to see Sartre's play? I said the object of do is more. I didn't say it's more than go or more than go to see Sartre's play. | |
| May 21, 2023 at 16:20 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | I'd not analyse 'do more than' other than as a unit. If you go that way, 'more than go' has surely to be seen as the object, hasn't it? | |
| May 21, 2023 at 3:23 | comment | added | JK2 | C2: Is the difference attributable to the fact that "more" is the object of "do" whereas "worse" isn't? | |
| May 20, 2023 at 10:49 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | It's usage, not traditional rules, that license. Hence 'extragrammatical idioms' (and the others; why not 'boat of the desert' / 'kick the pail' / 'Hold your mules! / 'Tom's your uncle / ...?) My opinion is that " 'Politicians could do worse than going to see Sartre's play' sounds more natural than 'Politicians could do worse than go to see Sartre's play' or 'Politicians could do worse than to go to see Sartre's play' ... but others could well disagree. At some levels, idiomaticity is as important as grammaticality. | |
| May 20, 2023 at 2:55 | comment | added | JK2 | C1: I think it should be either than or the matrix clause that licenses the complement of than. Does it have to be that difficult to figure out? | |
| May 19, 2023 at 14:33 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | C1: The stuff of theses. And then someone writes a conflicting one. C2: I think I'm with you in thinking that 'could do more than go' or 'could do more than just go' sounds better than 'could do more than going'. What a language. | |
| May 19, 2023 at 3:18 | comment | added | JK2 | In a similar construction, do you think it's still better to use -ing than (to)-infinitive? Politicians could do more than going to see Sartre's play | |
| May 19, 2023 at 2:56 | comment | added | JK2 | What do you think licenses the VPs following could do worse than? In the OP, the VPs are to vote for her, using a simple JScript application, and adding “The Midcoast” to your reading list this week. I doubt that the VPs are comparative clauses even though they follow "than". If we can figure out the thing that licenses the VPs, we might be able to figure out whether the -ing form is also grammatical. | |
| May 18, 2023 at 11:19 | history | edited | Edwin Ashworth | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 417 characters in body
|
| May 18, 2023 at 11:13 | history | answered | Edwin Ashworth | CC BY-SA 4.0 |