Good grammar vs. good taste revisited?

[Nancy Friedman]

StriVectin, the Mercedes-Benz of face creams and serums, has registered the
tagline "More Science. Less Wrinkles."
http://www.trademarkia.com/more-science-less-wrinkles-85090728.html

The company uses variations on that theme for specific products:

"Less Wrinkles. More Lift."
http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P293203

"More Science. Less Eye Lines."
http://www.strivectin.com/eye-concentrate.html

These are products that cost between $60 and $150 per tiny container.

Nancy
_______

Word of the week:  Resistentialism. http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com

Nancy Friedman
web  www.wordworking.com
blog  http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com
Top 10 Language Professionals Blog 2011 http://bit.ly/kHCN6u
tel 510 652-4159
cel 510 304-3953
fax 866 871-1523
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-----Original Message-----
From: Laurence Horn [mailto:laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2011 7:23 AM
Subject: Re: Good grammar vs. good taste revisited?

On Sep 23, 2011, at 9:30 PM, Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock wrote:

> I'm liking googla = plural of google? (I'm always the last to hear.)


I've been using "googlum" and "googla" for a while, but I don't know anyone
else who does.  So be prepared for puzzled looks.  Since "google" is already
taken for both the noun (denoting the search engine, technically with upper
case) and the verb, as well as the "nounjective" in compounds, I figure it
would help to have a separate noun for result(s) returned by a google
search, whence googlum (sg.)/googla (pl.)

LH

>
> On Sep 23, 2011, at 4:43 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Good grammar vs. good taste revisited?
>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>>
>> A currently airing commercial for Mercedes introducing its new line
>> of cars, the [two-door] 2012 C Coupe, boasts that it has:
>>
>> More Power
>> More Style
>> More Technology
>> Less Doors
>>
>> Let's see if it's a print ad too
>>
>>
>> Not that I can see, but lots of (predictable) complaining googla to
>> the effect that it "should" be "fewer doors".  I assume the "Less
>> doors" was entirely intentional and harks back to Miller Lite's
>> "Less filling"/"More taste" commercials as well as the general
>> tendency for "less" to be the antonym of "more" in most contexts.
>> And that we were supposed to notice.  It's not like a supermarket's
>> "10 items or less" aisle, which is likely unintentional.
>>
>> LH
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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