Fail as an adjective

[Karl Hagen]

{"very fail"} gets 20,700 g-hits

Arnold Zwicky wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Fail as an adjective
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jul 10, 2009, at 2:12 AM, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>
>> Or is it that 'so' has become an all-purpose intensifier that goes
>> with
>> nouns as well as adjectives?  See this song lyric, which popped up
>> when I
>> searched "I'm so loser":
>>
>> <http://www.lyricstime.com/melody-fall-i-m-so-me-lyrics.html>
>
>    I'm so Jerk I'm so Cadillac I'm so Loser I'm so Maniac
>    I'm so Nerd I'm so Brilliant I'm so Wrong and I'm so genius
>    I'm so me
>
> "so" is tricky, because it has a number of uses (including GenX "so",
> as in "that's so 1980s!").  so i tried another degree modifier,
> "too".  small number of hits for "too loser", "too jerk", and "too
> fail" (probably others as well, but i didn't try everything):
>
>    Artist's Statement
>
>    ... Here's a filler while yer at it. All the primary villains I can
> think of from each OC story. (ey, don't make fun. i love my villains.
> xDDD)
>
>    From Top going down left to right:
>    Top: Naberius the Fifth (and another guy, but I can't really say
> it, so they count as one, ha!) (no, that wing isn't coming out of him.
> Srsly, it isn't his. He's too loser to have one)
>    http://www.deviantart.com/print/4709728/
>
>    I think now Tiff is suffering to have a real though love choice,
> when she realizes how deep Leonard's love is, or Conrad who realizes
> he just needs Tiff so much(but he's too jerk in my opinion
>    http://forums.keenspot.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=43902
>
>    Ike doesnt got a army, he's too fail and as a result he has a bunch
> of random people.
>    http://www.gamespot.com/wii/rpg/fireemblem/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-46107262&pid=932999
>
>    *gasp* oh wait it's a dream... he's too fail to do that...
>    http://forum.onemanga.com/showthread.php?p=1399386
>
> .....
>
> there are two possibilities.  one is that some degree modifiers (like
> "so" and "that") have extended their range of use, to occur with nouns
> as well as adjectives.  such uses could be playful and ostentatious,
> essentially one-shot creations.  or the extension could be more
> general.  (yes, the line is not sharp.)
>
> the other possibility is that some nouns (like "loser" and "jerk")
> have developed adjective uses.  again, these uses could be playful and
> creative, or they could be more general.  for "fail", presumably we
> get from verb to noun and then to adjective.
>
> the two accounts make somewhat different predictions.  the first
> predicts that the degree modifiers will be available to modify nouns
> in general (or at least nouns with appropriate semantics).  the second
> predicts that the adjing (conversion to adjective) will work noun by
> noun.  my impression is that the second is what's going on, but it
> would take some work to distinguish the alternatives.
>
> arnold
>
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