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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A drive drive drive drive is the flight of a ball in a baseball game, the outcome of which results in an automobile trip by the all-time home-run champion to a venue in which culturally-acquired concern for the proliferation of a keychain semiconductor memory is sponsored through the profits of a lumber mill whose continued existencce depends upon the legalization of dredging a shallow river intended to convey logs downstream for further processing
Venue, incidentally, is another case in point
I can only add that deathless line by Marcus Tullius Cicero, the great Roman orator in the last days of the republic. Malo malo malo malo.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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old hand
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OP
old hand
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You realise the student is being a prescriptivist here. Yes, I do, but he didn't realize it, so it doesn't count... ;0)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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doesn't a lot mean very?
Doesn't work for me.
1a. He had to buy a lot of books.
1b. *He had to buy very of books.
1c. He had to buy many books.
2a. She drinks a lot.
2b. *She drinks very.
2c. She drinks much.
3a. The books are very red.
3b. *The books are a lot red.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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mad skillz. 
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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OP
old hand
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zmjezhd hits that one, but I can say that, based on what I hear daily, "mad" can mean both "a lot" and "very". This student was objecting to the "very" interpretation... Doesn't work for me.
1a. He had to buy a lot of books.
1b. *He had to buy very of books.
1c. He had to buy many books.
2a. She drinks a lot.
2b. *She drinks very.
2c. She drinks much.
3a. The books are very red.
3b. *The books are a lot red. Now, far be it from to question the Big Z, but isn't 2a. incomplete? Shouldn't it specify what the "lot" consists of? If it did, you could use mad with all of them: 4a. He had to buy mad books 4b. She drinks mad _____. (beer, whatever)(although I have heard, brace yourselves, "mad lot"...) 4c. The books are mad red. I kinda like it because it is broad. There is a word in Spanish that can mean any of the following: there is, there are, is there? are there? and it's one of my favorites for the same reason. :0)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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mad is just an exaggerator, so kind of like very, or a lot, or much.
I think.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Now, far be it from to question the Big Z, but isn't 2a. incomplete?
I use the minuscule zed in me moniker, ta. Well, in my dialect, a lot can be used by itself as in (2b).
2b. She drinks a lot.
2d. She drinks a lot of beer.
2e. He cheats a lot at cards.
2f. He cheats often at cards.
2g. A: Does she drink? B: Yes, a lot.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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2z. She drinks mad beer. ( and the hipper might even say She drinks mad beerage.)
2z2. He mad cheats at cards.
formerly known as etaoin...
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