[Lexicog] Digest Number 419

[adrian_p_smith]

--- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, Simon Wickham-Smith
<wickhamsmith at g...> wrote:
> yo!
> 
> Re like verb to like - check out, dudes and dudettes, the 
> use of the verb to go in the sentence "I go all weak at the 
> knees when I see her".  The speaker clearly is in no 
> position to go anywhere, yet it's an acceptable use of 
> metaphorical language.  'He's going mad", too, is another 
> example.  We use this verb in many many situations in which  
> to become would be more literal.  

A restricted bunch of mainly negative expressions. Apart from colours,
there's blind, deaf, bald, bankrupt, mad, crazy, apeshit, ballistic
and a few others (I've heard 'non-linear', which was cute). Try saying
"I went happy" and see how many people applaud your creativity.

> As David says, here it 
> seems that mimesis is becoming a more common descriptive  
> tack.  It seems, sadly, that it's just the fear of young 
> persons and their vulgar corruption of our beautiful and 
> rich tongue which is at work here.

Well, when I notice one of them using this mode of expression to come
out with something not mindlessly banal, I'll concede it the respect
you seem to feel it already deserves. 

"The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of
older people, and greatly assists the circulation of the blood." 
~Logan Pearsall Smith

-- 
Adrian Smith






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