Engineering amazing

[Ronald Butters]

Yet another ambiguity. This one works for me as well, though I doubt that AAVE is involved in any way.

On Sep 17, 2011, at 8:46 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> I just saw the ad. I hadn't read the thread.
>
> My sole interpretation was that "amazing" is intended as noun.
>
> As someone said, this nominalization of adjectives is extremely common in
> advertising, and in my experience it's been, say, "not uncommon," in speech
> for 30 or 435 years.
>
> There's another ad right now that has three or four in a row. Will note it
> when I see it again.
>
> IIRC, Dillard identified adjectival nominalization as a notable feature of
> AAVE. Cf. "God don't like ugly."
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 2:44 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: 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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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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