help is on the way

[Dennis R. Preston]

Let's help out here for real.

"Badass" is a compound - two words blended into one. If that's true, it
should have the English compound stress rule, not the adjective plus noun
rule.

For example a BLUEgill (stress on first syllable) is a compund and means a
kind of fish. A fish with a blue GILL (stress on second element) is an
adjective plus noun combination, and there are plenthy of fish with blue
gills which are not bluegills. "Badass," as any native spaker who has the
item can tell you, has the unmarked stress pattern "BADass" (not "bad
ASS"), hence, I would be tempted to call "badass" a compound.

Note how this does our list-partner's love affair a lot of good. A compound
is a single word made up of two. Love triumphs after all.

dInIs (happy to play cupid)

PS: Please note also that "badass" is made up of the fixed adjective form
"bad" which means cool, hip, imposing, powerful, etc...., not the item
"bad" which means unseemly, evil, not good. The form coumpounded here, for
example, does not inflect. "He is one bad sumbitch." but not *"Yeah and his
brother is one worse sumbitch." Hence, no "worseass" or "worstass."



:>On Mon, 11 Oct 1999, Andy Sachs wrote:
>
>>i am currently discussing the word badass with my girlfriend. she
>>claims that it is two words. i say one. even though i have provided
>>proof that it exists as one word in a dictionary she won't believe me
>>because there is no etymology provided. can anyone help me.
>
>Find a copy of the Melvin Van Peebles Film "Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song"
>(ca. 1971).
>
>Bethany

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736