Engineering amazing

Ronald Butters ronbutters at AOL.COM
Thu Sep 15 20:39:36 UTC 2011


Surely there are constructions galore of the form Noun + {Adjectivey thing}, particularly in advertising? "POM wonderful"? "the coffee delicious"? "Ram Tough"?

On Sep 15, 2011, at 2:46 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:

> On Sep 15, 2011, at 11:23 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>
>> On Sep 15, 2011, at 11:05 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On Sep 15, 2011, at 10:46 AM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>>
>>>> Sorry. Not the website (that was just for reference) but the expression. It's more engaging than Apple's "Think different."
>>>
>>> it *could* be that Lexus's "engineering amazing" was intended to convey 'engineering amazingly' (parallel to Apple's "think different"). but the interpretation i got was with "amazing" as a nouning of the adjective "amazing", so that it's the direct object of "engineering": Lexus engineers amazing stuff...
>>
>> of course, Apple's "think different" can also be read as involving a nouning: 'think of different things' or 'think in a different way'.
>>
>> arnold
>>
>
> That's what sent my mind in circles on this one by Lexus: They are engineering [things that are] amazing OR They are engineering amazing [things]. What goes into your head is that if Lexus makes it, it is amazing.
>
> At the same time, I felt like "amazing" was nouny and tried to think of an alternative such as "amazingness."
>
> BB
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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