Engineering amazing

[Ron Butters]

Syntactically, "engineering amazing" is absolutely ambiguous. Thus there is no grounds for assuming that "most people" would see it one way or another True, the noun+adjective order is rare in English (except for similatives). However, given that the verb interpretation requires restoring a deleted copula, it would seem to be something of a wash in terms of the processing required.

"Ram Tough" could certainly be a similative, though an inverted order (cf. "galore" et al.) is also possible, particularly since rams are not especially known for their 'toughness' (except perhaps as food).

Sent from my Droid Charge on Verizon 4GLTE

------Original Message------
From: victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Friday, September 16, 2011 2:44:18 PM GMT-0400
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Engineering amazing

Ram Tough==Tough As [a] Ram~~Tough Like [a] Ram (with Ram==Dodge). Actually,
interpreting "engineering" as a gerund, would add one more variant
interpretation to "engineering amazing"--amazing engineering. But, I suspect
that most people would see a verb there (participle).

VS-)

On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 5:02 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

>
> I'm not sure whether to top-post or bottom-post now, but I don't see the
> connection between "engineering amazing" (vt + adj) and "Ram tough" (noun +
> adj).
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>
> On Sep 15, 2011, at 1:39 PM, Ronald Butters wrote:
>
> >
> > Surely there are constructions galore of the form Noun + {Adjectivey
> thing}, particularly in advertising? "POM wonderful"? "the coffee
> delicious"? "Ram Tough"?
>

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