Verbing

[Bob Haas]

So now I have a good way to status myself!

Gregory {Greg} Downing wrote:

> Whatever one thinks of it from the angle of mainstream formal English,
> doesn't this process also allow the speaker to claim, by implication or
> connotation, status as innovative, colloquial, punchy, concise, uncowed by
> formalities, active (action words, not thing words), etc. Not to mention the
> speaker's implicit claim to be a member of an in-group with a special lingo
> -- an in-group to which the hearer may aspire to belong by adopting the
> lingo. Etc. etc....
>
> Is the most famous example of this "to access"? I suppose there must be
> examples that are still more successful at replicating themsleves.
>
> Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing at nyu.edu or gd2 at is2.nyu.edu

--

Bob Haas
Department of English
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

                        "Shun the frumious Bandersnatch!"