The False Possessive

[Jonathan Lighter]

Arnold gets an A+ (no surprise there), Matthew a B (for phrasing his correct
statement as a question, possibly even as "uptalk," in which case the grade
is F), and John a C- (for not stating the principle involved).

It might be a stretch to characterize this rule as "psychotic," but not much
of one.

In a world of false possessives and misapplied verys, almost anything might
be a humiliating blunder as the game of one-upmanship continues without
cease....

JL
On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 3:59 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: The False Possessive
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mar 4, 2009, from Matthew Gordon:
>
> "Disappointed" could only be a participle and not an adjective
> (modified by
> "very")?
>
> and from John Baker:
>
> >
> >        He should have been much disappointed.  Or, better still,
> > agreeably disappointed.
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > Behalf
> > Of Jonathan Lighter
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 1:51 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: The False Possessive
> >
> > BRAIN-TEASER:
> >
> > Any English professor of 1899 could see what's wrong with this
> > sentence.
> > Can you?
> >
> > "I was very disappointed."
>
> some discussion in
>
> http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/very-surprised-by-a-proscription/
>
> arnold
>
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