Can anyone explain why the preposition "of" is deleted in the second sentence below? Please provide relevant examples to understand. If there is a certain rule, then what is the name of that rule?
Incorrect: Most people think that women have achieved equality with men, but sociologists know that statistics for both post-graduate education and median income indicate as drastic of a gap as there was 10 years ago.
Correct: Most people think that women have achieved equality with men, but sociologists know that statistics for both post-graduate education and median income indicate as drastic a gap as there was 10 years ago.
If possible, what is the difference between the two sentences below?
He is as melodramatic of a man as any I have seen.
He is as melodramatic a man as any I have seen.
Why can't I use:
He is as melodramatic man as any I have seen.
Best Answer
Of is not 'deleted' in the second sentence; it is improperly intruded into the first.
This intrusive of has been common in colloquial English at least since I was a child in the 1950s, but it is not acceptable in formal writing.
As for the article: it is required by the ordinary sense:
It falls after the adjective here because melodramatic is not a direct attributive adjective (He is a melodramatic man) but the first term in the predicate comparison as melodramatic as . . . In fact, it would be entirely proper to write it that way:
There are really two predicates here: the "matrix" predication He is a man and the subordinate predication He is as melodramatic as any man I have ever seen.