LL-L "Morphology" 2008.04.04 (04) [E]

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From: orville crane <manbythewater at hotmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2008.04.04 (03) [E]

Beste Ron,
  It is sometimes difficult for me to keep my language usage straight,
regarding adverbs and adjectives. As you mentioned, there are the
generalized expressions like;
  'You've got to think smart.' and 'She writes great.'
  We all hear these expressions every day in the media or around the block.
We might even repeat them.
  I think that it is a bit different when we generate our own expressions. I
tell my neighbor;
'The dogs are feeling well. Their condition is good.' The first is an adverb
for the verb 'to feel' , and the second is an adjective for the noun
'condition'. The distinction here is pretty clear.
  My neighbor may ask me, "How am I doing?' and I reply, 'I am well. I am
doing really well!'
  But if my Dutch neighbor asks me, 'Hoe gaat het met je?' and I reply, 'Het
gaat goed. Het gaat heel goed!'
  In the Dutch, as in the case of the German, an adjective is used, but an
adverb is used in English.
  Although, I often hear people say, 'I'm doing good. I am doing really
good!'
  When we hear people say, 'We got there quick.', we can just repeat it if
we want too, just like the generalized expressions above. It is always
easier to just parrot what we hear, for better or worse. A person has to
decide if it really matters to them not to use sloppy and lazy grammar.
  Whether the reason for saying, 'I am doing good' and not 'I am doing
well', harkens back to the older form of the language or being sloppy and
lazy in the here and now or both; being sloppy and lazy resulting
inadvertently to the first case, I can't say. It is an interesting question,
Ron.
Yours truly,
Tom Crane
kanakanakai
manbythewater

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Morphology

Hi, Tom!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this. Your points are well taken ...
except one, unless I misunderstood you:

My neighbor may ask me, "How am I doing?' and I reply, 'I am well. I am
doing really well!'
But if my Dutch neighbor asks me, 'Hoe gaat het met je?' and I reply, 'Het
gaat goed. Het gaat heel goed!'
In the Dutch, as in the case of the German, an adjective is used, but an
adverb is used in English.

No, both languages (also German and other languages) use adverbs to modify
the verb. The *goed* in *Het gaat goed* is an *adverb*, not an adjective. It
is only -- and this was my main point -- that in the non-Anglo-Saxon
Lowlands languages as well as in German and Yiddish *adjectives and adverbs
sound alike* (and look alike written). There is an adjective *goed*, and
there is an adverb *goed*. English, however, on the whole marks adverbs and
thus distinguishes them from their adjectival counterparts.

My other main point was that colloquial American English tends toward
*not*marking adjectives (e.g. "He don't hear so good," "It's goin'
quick"), and I
wonder if this is due to influences of immigrant languages other than
English.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

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