more on -er (UNCLASSIFIED)

Thu Dec 3 16:09:21 UTC 2009

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I've seen it also called "Climaquiddick", as well as "Climategate".

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Benjamin Zimmer
> Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 9:25 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: more on -er (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: more on -er (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
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> --------
>
> On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 4:45 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
> >
> > I believe, it would be inappropriate to delve further into
> theoretical
> > musings on global warming (or lack thereof) on this list. [snip]
>
> To bring things back on-topic, I see that AGW deniers have taken to
> calling their opponents "global warmists" or simply "warmists." There
> are plenty of blog posts about how "Climategate" has exposed the
> "warmist conspiracy." There are far fewer complaints about the "warmer
> conspiracy," so presumably the ambiguous reading of "warmer" blocks
> the conspiratorial "-er" ending in this case -- it attaches more
> readily to nouns ("truth", "birth", "death", "flat earth") than to
> adjectives that can take comparative inflection.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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