we didn't know

[artart]

1) At the symposium there was only one scientist who had published we knew not how many articles. We knew exactly how many articles the others had published.

2) At the symposium there was only one scientist who had published we did not know how many articles. We knew exactly how many articles the others had published.

3) At the symposium there was only one scientist who had published a number of articles but we didn't know how many. We knew exactly how many articles the others had published.

4) 1) At the symposium there was only one scientist who we didn't know how many articles he had published. We knew exactly how many articles the others had published.

Which of the above sentences are grammatically correct?

Don't '1' and '2' imply that he had published a great number of articles?

[Dormouse559]

For me, only 4 is grammatical and idiomatic, but only in casual settings or candid speech. In a formal context, I would rephrase. (3 is grammatical but awkward. 1 is possibly grammatical, but the "we knew not …" construction is incongruous.)

Alternate wordings:

At the symposium there was only one scientist whose number of published articles we didn't know. We knew exactly how many articles the others had published.

At the symposium there was only one scientist who had published an unknown number of articles. We knew exactly how many articles the others had published. (slightly ambiguous, but clarified by second sentence)

We knew exactly how many articles each scientist at the symposium had published, except for one.

With one exception, we knew exactly how many articles each scientist at the symposium had published.