9.774, Disc: Recent change in English

[LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-9-774. Sat May 23 1998. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 9.774, Disc: Recent change in English

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=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Fri, 22 May 1998 10:45:33 CST
From:  "Jim Swanson" <swansonj at columbia.dsu.edu>
Subject:  Re: 9.768, Disc: Recent Change in English

2)
Date:  Fri, 22 May 1998 13:55:36 -0700 (PDT)
From:  Michael Hughes <hughes at ling.ucsd.edu>
Subject:  Re: 9.758, Disc: English Change

3)
Date:  Fri, 22 May 1998 18:09:31
From:  Earl Herrick <kfemh00 at tamuk.edu>
Subject:  recent changes in English: "fun"

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 22 May 1998 10:45:33 CST
From:  "Jim Swanson" <swansonj at columbia.dsu.edu>
Subject:  Re: 9.768, Disc: Recent Change in English

I think that fun as an adjective has long been used as an adjective
in the predicate position.  I have heard and used the following many
times over the years.:

     That game was more fun than the other.

It would not do to use the other examples of a stone house or a
diamond ring in that construction:

     *That house was more stone than the other.
     *That ring was more diamond than the other.

But other adjectives would certainly apply.

    That house was more beautiful than the other.


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 22 May 1998 13:55:36 -0700 (PDT)
From:  Michael Hughes <hughes at ling.ucsd.edu>
Subject:  Re: 9.758, Disc: English Change

>
> Date:  Thu, 21 May 98 08:14 EDT
> Subject:  "Fun" adjective or noun
>
> The difference is that nouns don't have comparatives:
>
> 	* a more stone house
> 	* a more diamong ring
> 	% a more fun game
>
> -Joel Hoffman
> (joel at exc.com)

	Out here in the west, the proper comparative for the adjective
'fun' is, of course, 'funner', as in:

	"Oh, dude, this game is (way) funner than that one."


-------------------------------- Message 3 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 22 May 1998 18:09:31
From:  Earl Herrick <kfemh00 at tamuk.edu>
Subject:  recent changes in English: "fun"

The question of whether "fun" is becoming an adjective only arises if
one has been bemused by the usual schoolroom definitions of the
so-called eight parts of speech. English, being a Germanic language,
allows nouns to modify nouns. So "This is a fun game." has the same
syntax as "This is a card game."

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