Some

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"Editors make lots of instant decisions, big or small. I once counted 15 significant ones in a day. And, inevitably, you’re going to be wrong some of the time. Frailty goes wit has the job." (The Guardian.)

What does the pronoun "some" refer to in the paragraph above?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

AnonymousWhat does the pronoun "some" refer to in the paragraph above?

time

BillJ · Answer

Anonymous
"Editors make lots of instant decisions, big or small. I once counted 15 significant ones in a day. And, inevitably, you’re going to be wrong some of the time. Frailty goes wit has the job." (The Guardian.)
What does the pronoun "some" refer to in the paragraph above?

"Some" is called a partitive 'fused-head' determiner'. Here, the fused head "some" is followed by the partitive preposition phrase "of the time". The noun phrase "some of the time" is partitive in the sense that it denotes 'some period of time of a greater period of time'.

A clearer example of a fused-head construction might be something like [Some of his remarks] were quite flattering. Again, we have the fused-head determiner "some", which this time is followed by the partitive PP "of his remarks". The NP "some of his remarks" is partitive in the sense that it denotes a subset of the set consisting of his remarks. We understand it to mean "some remarks from the set of his remarks".

Some

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