Engineering amazing

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/17/2011 08:46 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.

And thus for Jon (and myself) not noun+adjective, as Ron Butters
wrote, but verb+noun.

Joel


>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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