Military industrial complex lays Pommy lexicographer low

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>This song has lexicographical interest.  "Wild blue yonder" is parsed by many
>people as a noun phrase and used in conversation that way.  ("I lost my
>wallet.  I guess it's gone into the wild blue yonder.")  I don't have any
>citations for this, nor can I prove that the original intent of the first line
>was that "blue" was the noun and "yonder" was an adverb ("wild blue, yonder").
>I certainly never parsed it as an adverb as a child or when I was in the USAF.
>However, I grew up in the south where we did in fact use "yonder" as an
>adverb.  (Not as an adjective, though.)

An interesting point. But "yonder" alternatively can be taken as a "noun"
by analogy with other constructions. Compare:

"We go off into the wild blue yonder."
"I looked into the far yonder."
"We live in the here and now."
"I inquired as to the where and when."
"There's no there, there."

-- Doug Wilson