[Grammar] a bit of boy / a lot of boy

[magic dragon]

I'd appreciate it if someone would answer my question. Thank you in advance.


A: “She's still got a bit of boy in her”. To demonstrate clearly the difference between boys and girls, Lily holds up a blue doll to represent the boy she used to be and a pink doll to show the girl she has become. (from google)


B: Trouble is, this young father, though "king" to his children, still has a lot of boy in himself; a boy seeing his own trophy, hunting his own crown. Nevertheless, he is molding his children's memories and attitudes and lives--and their own parent skills right now. (from google)

Is "a bit of boy" in A and "a lot of boy" in B rightly used? Are they common phrases?
Does singular "boy" with no article mean boylikeness?

 

[Phaedrus]

[. . .]

A: “She's still got a bit of boy in her”. [. . .]

B: Trouble is, this young father, though "king" to his children, still has a lot of boy in himself [. . .]

Is "a bit of boy" in A and "a lot of boy" in B rightly used? Are they common phrases?
Does singular "boy" with no article mean boylikeness?

Magic Dragon, is your real name by any chance Puff?

When I saw this thread's title, my first thought was, in so many words, "What is Magic Dragon smoking?" Then I saw the context and breathed more freely.

The sentences "She's still got a bit of boy in her" and "[He] still has a lot of boy in [him]" are OK, at least informally, to my native-AmE-speaking ears.

Grammatically, they resemble a line Edward Norton uses in reference to a dog in the opening scene of 25th Hour: "He's got a lot of bite left in him."

"Boy," though normally just a count noun, can be used as a noncount noun in this construction and in some others -- e.g.: "He's part boy, part girl."

What does not work at all for me in the part of example (B) that I quoted is the reflexive pronoun. That is why I changed "in himself" to "in him."

 

[magic dragon]

Thank you Phaedrus.

<quote>
Magic Dragon, is your real name by any chance Puff?
--- Yes, that's my former user name. And Jackie paper was my human friend.
But rumor has it that Jackie was killed in Vietnam War. Since then Magic Dragon has been very lonely and has never smoked anything.
In Japan, after the tune by PPM got out of fashion, it became a children's song.
Thank you for your kind answer.

 

[jutfrank]

Does singular "boy" with no article mean boylikeness?

Yes, I think that's a good way of putting it.

 

[Rover_KE]

[STRIKE]I'd appreciate it if someone would answer my question.[/STRIKE] Unnecessary. Just go ahead and ask your question.

[STRIKE]Thank you in advance.[/STRIKE] Unnecessary. Just click 'Thank' when you get an answer.


...

;-)

 

[Phaedrus]

Yes, I think that's a good way of putting it.

Initially, I too agreed with that point, merely changing "boylikeness" to "boyishness," the latter being an actual word in the English language.

The reason I deleted that part of my post is that it doesn't seem to work in the other noncount case I gave: "part boy, part girl." But that's OK.

Also, I wondered if the transgender site might have something physical in mind -- a body-parts meaning. It was the doll that made me wonder.

 

[jutfrank]

I wondered if the transgender site might have something physical in mind -- a body-parts meaning. It was the doll that made me wonder.

Right, yes. The senses of boy in sentences A and B are not quite the same.

It's hard to say what the transgender site means exactly. It may be to do with body parts or it may be about gender identity more abstractly, suggesting that Lily is mostly 'girl' but there's still a little part of her (identity, not anatomy) that's 'boy'. In other words, she has some 'boyness' in her in terms of gender, not behaviour.

Sentence B is to do with being a boy in opposition to being an adult (man), rather than in opposition to being a girl. It's a sentence about growing up and maturing, not about gender.

 

[Phaedrus]

It may be to do with body parts or it may be about gender identity more abstractly, suggesting that Lily is mostly 'girl' but there's still a little part of her (identity, not anatomy) that's 'boy'.

Very nice. On a related note, I was stuck by the fact that we can say, "She is more girl than boy," again pressing count nouns into noncount service.

Also, the OP's construction is one that we sometimes use with proper names: "He still has a bit of his father in him" / "He still has a bit of Bill in him."

Magic Dragon still has a bit of Puff in him.

 

[jutfrank]

And there's still some Magic Dragon in me too. ;-)

 

[tedmc]

I don't think it is natural to say "a lot of boy" in a person. But I think it is common to say that "there is the boy/child in somebody", meaning the "boy part" of the person.