indefinite articles - He is a little more sophisticated man.


It is ungrammatical to say "He is a little more sophisticated man" OR "He is a little more smart and sophisticated man". My reasoning as to why is as follows:


The problem is that 'a little' is a construction in itself. 'Move over a little'. 'Move over a little more'. Whatever you analyse 'little' as here, it isn't a noun. Realistically, it is probably a contraction or ellipsis of 'a little bit'. Either way, if you say 'a little more', the 'a' is part of the construction, it is not the indefinite article to a noun. In 'a little more sophisticated movie', the 'a' belongs to 'a little', not 'movie'. So we are short of an indefinite article. If we say 'an a little more sophisticated movie', that too is wrong. The solution? Don't use 'a little', use 'somewhat' or 'slightly' or some other construction that doesn't already use 'a'. 'somewhat more sophisticated', 'slightly more sophisticated', 'a little more sophisticated'. Only 'a little' requires 'a'. Oh, and if you say 'it is little more sophisticated (than)', that means 'it is NOT MORE sophisticated (than)' which is an entirely different meaning. 'It is little more sophisticated than the technology of last century."


http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/little-a-little-few-a-few


In the same way, if you say "He is an 'a' grade student", 'a' is not an article, so you need 'an' as the indefinite article.


Does anyone have a different viewpoint as to why "He is a little more sophisticated man" as a stand alone sentence (not followed by 'than' or any implied content) is ungrammatical?




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