Engineering amazing

[Ron butters]

These all seem to me deviant/figurative syntactic deletions of the definite article. This is not to say that the current popularity is sociolinguistically uninteresting, only that it is easily explained grammatically. Poets have been doing this sort of thing for generations (though I confess I can't think of exact parallels off the top of my head, but rough parallels would be "everyone lived in a pretty how town"; surely Milton is full of  "of + ADJ?"?)

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On Nov 5, 2011, at 5:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Turner Classic Movies promises "a castleful of crazy in _Dementia 13_!"
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 4:26 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Engineering amazing
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> TV commercials just this week:
>>
>> "Chex Mix is a bag of interesting!"
>>
>> "Leave behind ordinary!" [Visit South Africa.]
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 12:25 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: Engineering amazing
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DNexGfaUVA :
>>>
>>> "Tired sucks. Not end of a long day tired. But middle of the day,
>>> places to go, things to do, deadlines to meet. But all I want to do is
>>> close my eyes tired. 5-hour ENERGY fixes tired fast."
>>>
>>> Also on TV.
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 12:51 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject:      Re: Engineering amazing
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> Re adj. > n.
>>>>
>>>> Michael Moore explained today that the banks are filthy rich.
>>>>
>>>> "But filthy rich isn't good enough."
>>>>
>>>> All of these forms may be characterized as simple (though novel)
>>>> "being"-deletion.
>>>>
>>>> (Apologies if someone has already suggested that.)
>>>>
>>>> JL
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 11:31 AM, Ben Zimmer
>>>> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>> -----------------------
>>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>>>>> Subject:      Re: Engineering amazing
>>>>>
>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 11:23 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The commercial I mentioned is for Grant Thornton, management consultants.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> As the words materialize on the screen, a voice tells you,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Big doesn't win....
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Original wins.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Fresh wins.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Smart wins."
>>>>>
>>>>> And speaking of the opposition between "smart" and "big", there's a
>>>>> commercial currently running for the Smart Car with a tagline
>>>>> seemingly designed to appeal to Larry Horn: "Unbig. Uncar."
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-smart-car-134981
>>>>>
>>>>> --bgz
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Ben Zimmer
>>>>> http://benzimmer.com/
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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