Whenever I use the plural of "one", I find myself wondering out loud: "what would my friendly neighborhood prescriptivist say?"

For example: "Which party chips should I buy? Get some of the triangular ones."

I see where the issue arises, but there is a logical explanation for it. In this case, "one" is being used as a pronoun, not its normal meaning. "Which one do you want? That one." "Which ones do you want? Those ones." I don't see a way to ask the latter question without "Which of those do you want?", which is more verbose.

In my head, I liken this to "It is raining." The prescriptivists don't complain that "it" doesn't refer to anything! It is just a strange artifact of the language.

This word "one" is really an interesting one, isn't it?

Listen to what the usage note says correct grammar is:

1) "He is one of those people who just don't take 'no' for an answer."

2) "The sports car turned out to be one of the most successful products that were ever manufactured in this country."

In the latter one, only 42% of the usage panelists accepted the singular verb! I think both those sentences sound odd with the plural verbs.

I don't know about those usage panelists!

There is one caveat, though: "The fraction rule has an exception in that amounts are sometimes treated as singular entities: One and a half cups is enough sugar."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

There are two possible grammars for these constructions. The relative clause can attach to either the noun phrase (NP) headed by 'one' or the NP below it that 'one' is choosing one from. So:

[one of those people]
[one of those people] who doesn't...

or:

[those people who don't...]
one of [those people who don't]

Now I think I'd accept the first kind, with singular verb agreeing with 'one', but it's much more natural to me to use the second kind, plural agreeing with 'people'. After all, it's all the people specified who (do whatever), and you're picking out one of those: you're not just picking out the one who does that thing. It would have to be singular if you were just picking out one:

[the only one of those people] who doesn't...

quote:

"Get some of the triangular ones."

Strange to say, in this context 'one' is a noun, not a pronoun. Dictionaries will usually call it a pronoun, but its grammar is entirely that of a noun: the triangular thing, the triangular one, *the triangular yours; my things, my ones, *my these.

It is however a pronoun, or at least more like a pronoun, in 'one of them is triangular'. It can still probably take some specifiers (?'my one of them is...', ?'this one of them...') but it can't take adjectives: *my triangular one of them.

*head explodes*

Which brings up another point, what is the head of the noun phrase, "the triangular ones"? Ok, so it is "ones".

When you say, "Which highly complicated noun phrase do you want me to get?", you answer "That one". For the plural question, is there any easier way to say "Those ones"? For example, you could say "Those few", but that only works for a small amount. "That bunch" or "That group" seems to be imply the items are related, which might not be the case. To me "ones" implies a group of objects which are unrelated.

Of course, I realize if you ask the same question, I could say, "The blue ones", at which point, my whole hypothesis goes out the window. I think the only answer possible is that this is a highly specified construction in the English language. For example, "my blue ones" and "your blue ones" are fine, but "my ones" and "your ones" aren't right at all, you have to say "mine" and "yours".

This is pretty interesting, take "my one" and put it together and you get pretty close to "mine". To further interestify me, I find both the indefinate article an and one comes from Old English an. This linguistic artifact could very well explain this whole mess. I'll have to write more later, as I am ending this post without conclusion.

I see "that's mine" and "that's my one" as both being legitimate constructions with different shades of meaning.

A child in a pet shop pointing at puppies in a box might say "that's mine" claiming ownership of the puppy in question or "that's my one" saying in effect that all the others belong to someone else. The former construction allows the possibility that the child might own another puppy as well. The latter does not.

The same argument could then be extended to "those are mine" and "those are my ones".

quote:

"It is raining."

Yes, I love it!

Another thing I like is cataphora:

"Because they were rigid, Jenny found grammar mavens unhelpful in most of the interesting cases."

"If you need one, there’s a towel in the top drawer."

"Xerxes absolutely hated it. Darius had given him the wrong dictionary."

"A friend of hers went shopping with Jeanne."

"It hurt him when Maria lied to John."

Anaphora: pronouns refer back to some antecedent noun.

Cataphora: pronouns refer forward to some noun yet to be mentioned.

[Fixed text to make it closer to my original intended sense, and corrected an egregious typo.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

Is "it is raining" really cataphora? The "it" doesn't point to anything.

... there is a logical explanation for it. In this case, "one" is being used as a pronoun, not its normal meaning. "Which one do you want? That one." "Which ones do you want? Those ones."

Go back 3 spaces, as they say in Monopoly.

"Those ones" is certainly awkward, and this awkwardness is resolved by realizing that even as "one" is a pronoun in this context, so is "Those." In which case - it being not an adjective - there is nothing to follow it and agree in number. The reply to "Which ones do you want?" is simply "Those." (Please don't ask me how to parse "Those three"...)

quote:

Is "it is raining" really cataphora? The "it" doesn't point to anything.

I am sorry if I implied that. I didn't mean to. Perhaps it should be called ouphora?

quote:

The "it" doesn't point to anything.

While it doesn't sound right, when I hear "it is raining," I think of the weather. But "the weather is raining" of course isn't correct.

I've thought extensively on this, and there doesn't appear to be anything that fits well into this sentence. "The sky is raining"? Also, think "it is time for bed". What is time for bed. Of course, "time for bed" is perfectly grammatical, but "Is raining", while understandable, seems ungrammatical and "It's raining" is just as easy to say.

Then you have "it's pouring" and "it's drizzling". The it in those cases is the rain. Otherwise, the it seems to be pointing to the general state of things.

For the Romans, it was Jove / Jupiter who was raining: Iuppiter pluit.

quote:

For the Romans, it was Jove / Jupiter who was raining: Iuppiter pluit.

Perhaps that explains why he rains in French, too.

Jupiter: when it rains, he reigns.

quote:

when I hear "it is raining," I think of the weather. But "the weather is raining" of course isn't correct.

The low pressure area above us (it) is raining.

OEDILF had a limerick which said (paraphrase) if your teeth fall out, you'll get a new set and you can bite with "those ones". I say the "ones" is unnecessary and merely seems an improper progression from "that one"(singular) to "those (or these) ones" (plural). Some say "ones" is needed to show which (out of group) you want. But in both cases (with and without the word), a physical demonstration, such as pointing, would have to be done by someone to illustrate your choice. So "ones" seems superfluous.

It might be superfluous, but that doesn't mean it's wrong. After all redundancy is a feature of language.

OK, poor word choice. The question is, would you use the phrase in a formal setting, such as an essay? Or is it restricted to less formal usage?

Good question. I don't know. There are certainly enough people complaining about it online. I was surprised that it doesn't have an entry in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage.