(quasi-)neologisms

[Michael Adams]

Also, there's not the slightest challenge to combinatorial propriety:
first, adverbs easily modify verbs, in some manner, in some structure;
second, the sentence is an easily interpreted ellipsis -- "(Do you)
walk much?"  Some of the ADJ + much constructions aren't so terribly
out of the way, either:  first, adverbs regularly modify adjectives;
second, "(Are you) jealous much?" seems an easy ellipsis.  The problems
begin to develop here, though:  much 'often', much 'a lot', or much
'very, intensively'?  And at the point that these glosses for much
don't coordinate easily with the adjective antecedent, the problem gets
worse.  "Tuna much?"  Understanding this depends on context and
cultural agreement (of the kind the Clarks described in 1975 for verbed
proper names) -- "Do you eat tuna a lot?" isn;t a successful rendering
of the sentence.  Also, there's the NOUN + ADV problem -- shouldn't
happen, but does.  "That is so Eighties" or "That is so you" are
related but not quite the same, not least in preposition of the adverb.
  Thus VERB + much = colloquial, but ADJ + much = slang, and NOUN + much
-- slang much.

-----Original Message-----
From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent:         Mon, 9 May 2005 13:46:10 -0400
Subject:      Re: (quasi-)neologisms

   >I'm not sure if self reporting is helpful, but my college friends
and I
  >said things like this in college in the late 1970's-- our favorite
was
  >"walk much?" if someone tripped. This SW PA circa 1976. Not sure
where
 >it came from though.
 >
 >Patti Kurtz

 I think this usage (which I could imagine hearing or saying) is
 different, in that a negative proposition is implicated here (=
 'apparently, you don't walk much'), while the Heathero-Buffyist usage
 implicates a positive one, as noted below. Plus there's no negative
 evaluation of the activity of walking in connection with the
 "out-of-practice" reading above the way there is with obsessiveness,
 jealousy, paranoia, etc.

 Larry

 >jester at PANIX.COM wrote:
 >
 >>---------------------- Information from the mail header
 >>-----------------------
 >>Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
 >>Poster: Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
 >>Subject: Re: (quasi-)neologisms

>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >>
 >>On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 11:10:27AM -0400, Laurence Horn wrote:
 >>
 >>>From a recent novel featuring life among 20-somethings in New York.
 >>>OK, one of these is evidently not new, but represents an unfamiliar
 >>>construction to me:
 >>>
 >>>"obsessive much?" as a query, evidently a rhetorical question, to
  >>>which the anticipated (non-vocalized) answer is "Yes, X is/are
indeed
 >>>very obsessive (about whatever it is)". Michael Adams can perhaps
 >>>tell us whether this is a Buffyism. A quick tour of google hits
 >>>(703, some but not most of which are false positives involving
 >>>sentence breaks between the "obsessive" and the "much") doesn't
 >>>indicate this, but it *sounds* like a Buffyism. Which doesn't of
 >>>course mean that it was first launched on the show, of course.
 >>>
 >>
 >>It was popularized on Buffy, though not first found there, as
 >>the OED entry makes clear:
 >>
 >>h. colloq. (orig. U.S., freq. ironic). With a preceding
 >>adjective, infinitive verb, or noun phrase, forming an
 >>elliptical comment or question.
 >> The use was popularized by the film _Buffy, the Vampire
 >>Slayer_ and the television series derived from it.
 >>
 >> 1988 D. WATERS Heathers (film script) 15 God Veronica, drool
 >>much? His name's Jason Dean. 1988 D. WATERS Heathers (film
 >>script) 86 Heather Duke. It was J.D.'s idea! He made out the
 >>signature sheet and everything. Now will you sign
 >>it. Veronica. (queasy) No. Heather Duke. Jealous much? 1992
 >>J. WHEDON Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film script) 8 A stranger,
 >>walking the other way, bumps into Buffy, doesn't
 >>stop... Buffy. Excuse much! Not rude or anything. 1992
 >>J. WHEDON Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film script) 25 Pike and
 >>Benny have entered the diner, quite drunk... Kimberly (to the
 >>other girls) Smell of booze much. 1998 M. BURGESS & R. GREEN
 >>Isabella in Sopranos (television shooting script) 1st Ser. 1
 >>42 Anthony Jr. Probably I can't go to that dance now
 >>either. Meadow. God, self-involved much? 2001 Cosmopolitan
 >>Dec. 178 You've seen them: the kinds of couples who finish
 >>each other's sentences... Jealous much? Damn right.
 >>
 >>Jesse Sheidlower
 >>OED
 >>
 >
 >--
 >
 >Dr. Patti J. Kurtz
 >
 >Assistant Professor, English
 >
 >Director of the Writing Center
 >
 >Minot State University
 >
 >Minot, ND 58707
 >
 >
 >
 >Foster: What about our evidence? They've got to take notice of that.
 >
 >
 >
 >Straker: Evidence. What's it going to look like when Henderson claims
 >that we manufactured it, just to get a space clearance program?
 >
 >
 >
 >Foster: But we are RIGHT!
 >
 >
 >
 >Straker: Sometimes, Colonel, that's not quite enough.