Path: g2news2.google.com!postnews.google.com!a30g2000vbt.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: Jerry Friedman Newsgroups: alt.usage.english Subject: Re: "more dense" and "denser" Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:56:13 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Lines: 24 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.176.219.249 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: posting.google.com 1286988973 32684 127.0.0.1 (13 Oct 2010 16:56:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:56:13 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: a30g2000vbt.googlegroups.com; posting-host=198.176.219.249; posting-account=yXvQywkAAABYJd1Q4krD2YEQS_8xahWl User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET4.0C),gzip(gfe) On Oct 13, 12:09=A0am, Eric Walker wrote: > On Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:05:08 -0700, Jerry Friedman wrote: > > Fourteen of my students took a test with a question about floating > > higher in salt water than fresh. =A0Eight of them used a comparative of > > "dense" in their answer. =A0Of these, all used "more dense". =A0This st= ruck > > me as strange--I'd use "denser". =A0Is it generational? =A0(Though one = of > > the students looks older than me.) =A0Maybe regional? =A0What would you= use? [Curme] > He further adds that "Often the choice between the old and the new type > depends merely on the agreeableness of sound, so that there is much > variation in expression here." > > I imagine that last covers it best. One thing that surprised me was the lack of variation among my students. Another thing, though, was the variation between me and them. -- Jerry Friedman