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I never saw anyone work as hard as he did, many a time I saw him on the weekends working to his highest standards to give the best research he could give.
From the context, I understand many a time equals many times. My question is when we can use this structure. Can we, for example, say many a person in place of many people?
A link explaining this structure will be appreciated.
Juya
Posted 2015-03-14T00:48:37.543
Reputation: 2 608
7
According to the 2002 CGEL, the usage of the expression "many a time" is fine and standard English.
But if you use a different count singular noun than "time" in that expression, such as in "many a person", then you might risk having that expression seen as being somewhat formal or archaic.
In the 2002 CGEL, page 394:
Many in combination with a
Many combines with a to form two kinds of complex determinative:
[66]
i. [Many a man] has been moved to tears by this sight.
ii. [A great many complaints] had been received.
Many a is syntactically inert: nothing can intervene between many and a, and many cannot even be replaced in this position by its antonym few. Like a, many a always functions as determiner. It is found in proverbs such as There's many a slip twixt cup and lip, and in the frequency adjunct many a time, but is elsewhere somewhat formal or archaic. The many component indicates a large number, but the a has an individuating and distributive effect requiring a count singular head.
Great in a great many can be replaced by good, but one or other of these adjectives is required; for the rest, these expressions are syntactically comparable to a few. They function as determiner or fused determiner-head (simple or partitive).
NOTE: The 2002 CGEL is the 2002 reference grammar by Huddleston and Pullum (et al.), The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.
F.E.
Posted 2015-03-14T00:48:37.543
Reputation: 5 118
+1 But, there is actually one word that can appear between many and a in that construction ... – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-03-14T22:43:32.367
@Araucaria And that one word is? – F.E. – 2015-03-14T22:50:51.663
That word, arguably, is "many" ;) [which is part of the argument that many is an adjective ...] – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-03-14T22:53:17.210
@Araucaria Wait! Do you mean something like: "There's many [many a] slip twixt cup and lip." :D -- (EDIT: And I'm not seeing any argument for considering either "many" as being an adjective.) – F.E. – 2015-03-14T22:55:39.760
1Well, your prototypical determinative is not stackable. "Give me a a slice of bread. I want some some beer. I'll have that, that book. I found the the pen" – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-03-14T22:59:38.110
1@Araucaria Hmm, it seems you might have something there, where something like "many many a time" might be falling in between the cracks in CGEL's framework. It seems that adjectives do intensificatory repetition/tautology, and the syntactically inert determinative "many a" can only function as a determiner. So, that does seem to pose as a hiccup. :) – F.E. – 2015-03-15T07:11:50.790
Great! And what about its corresponding verb? Should I say Many a person are waiting for you or Many a person is waiting ...? considering the meaning the former and considering grammar rules the latter sounds better. – Juya – 2015-03-15T22:05:14.777
1@Juya I've added the rest of the CGEL info, which includes: [66.i] "Many a man has been moved to tears by this sight", and it uses a singular verb ("has") which agrees with the singular noun ("man") in the subject. :) – F.E. – 2015-03-15T22:39:41.237
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Yes, you can say many a person instead of many persons; you can use "many a" for a large number of (many) people or things.
The only difference is that "many" is more common in use, whereas the phrase "many a" is formal, old-fashioned, or literary. Many is used with a plural noun and verb, whereas "many a" is used with a singular noun and verb.
Many persons don't come to this restaurant.
Many a person doesn't come to this restaurant.
Khan
Posted 2015-03-14T00:48:37.543
Reputation: 26 261
Yes, I remember that I had read somewhere in Swan about this. +1 :) – Maulik V – 2015-03-14T04:34:45.420
1Between "Many persons don't come to this restaurant" and "Not many people come to this restaurant", I think I prefer the latter. – Damkerng T. – 2015-03-14T11:42:56.233
@DamkerngT. I agree your sentence sounds better. – Khan – 2015-03-15T06:08:26.360
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Many a time = on many different occasions/often. It is a somewhat "folksy" manner. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=(many+a+time)&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2C%28many%20a%20time%29%3B%2Cc0 and https://books.google.com/books?id=sIBBAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA33&dq=%22many+a+time%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=A4cDVbTcJo7msATqo4K4AQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22many%20a%20time%22&f=false
– Tᴚoɯɐuo – 2015-03-14T00:54:58.297reminds me of a family anecdote - my aunt, when she was young [1950's] on arriving home late one night [probably 'late' == after 10pm in those days] was asked by her mother, "Young lady, have you seen that clock?" - to which she replied, "Yes, many a time." – gone fishin' again. – 2015-03-14T01:07:12.430
1To my native ear, "many a time" doesn't seem like something that you would normally say (and doesn't sound like it's correct grammar, even though it might be correct). I've never heard anyone say it – Jojodmo – 2015-03-14T01:33:17.907
1@Jojodmo - it's perfectly good English, just antiquated. It's actually quite common in Northern BrE - as are many other antiquated forms. – gone fishin' again. – 2015-03-14T11:58:20.750