very giving

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>I was interested in "to seem giving," etc. because, as grammmarians
>know, the four criteria for adjectives (See Quirk, et. al.:
>_Comprehensive Grammar_, 1985) are (1) attributive use; (2) predicative
>use with copula "seem"; (3) premodification by "very"; and (4)
>comparability. "Giving" seems to fail the second criterion. I wonder if
>there is a linguistic theory or model that covers this kind of
>participial adjective formation.

Examples of "seem giving" on the Web:

http://www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/985/4344/14

http://home.c2i.net/jos2001/eng/spinal.html

http://www.wisdomsdoor.com/rc4/hrc4-17.shtml

http://www.korealink.com/singles/female/newyork/profile/1992.shtml

http://www.eyrie.org/ftp/lists/superguy/superguy.981221

I don't like this usage very much, but that wasn't one of the criteria, was
it? (^_^)

-- Doug Wilson