Re: Pearl Harbor question
- From: R. L. <see-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 23:25:55 GMT
On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 15:18:25 -0700, James A. Donald <jamesd@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
>> On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 16:12:26 -0400, "Brian M. Scott"
>> > 1. Opinion or judgment -- beautiful, ugly, easy,
>> > fast, interesting
Do 'beautiful' and 'ugly' really clearly always belong under 'opinion'? Or
'fast'? Certainly in many contexts and styles those are used more like
objective terms.
>> > 2. Size -- small, tall, short, big
>> >
>> > 3. Age -- young, old, new, historic, ancient
>> >
>> > 4. Shape -- round, square, rectangular
>> >
>> > 5. Color -- red, black, green, purple
>> >
>> > 6. Nationality -- French, Asian, American,
>> > Canadian, Japanese
>> >
>> > 7. Material -- wooden, metallic, plastic, glass,
>> > paper
>> >
>> > 8. Purpose or Qualifier -- foldout sofa, fishing
>> > boat,racing car
>
>James A. Donald
>> Google give 1610 hits for "big old ugly" and only 36
>> hits for "ugly big old"
Well, for one thing, 'big old' is sort of an idiom. "Let's us get a big ol'
box and paint it for a tree house." So is 'pretty good', 'pretty big', etc
-- 'pretty' meaning 'somewhat'. In THE YEARS WITH ROSS there's a story
about Ross's style rules and someone turning in a story that said "The
building is pretty ugly and a little big for its site." -- So idiomatic
uses like those might be throwing off the count.
Ftm, I see a sort of idiomatic kerning between 'big' and quite a few other
common words: 'big new', 'big fast', 'big strong', etc.
>Following up my own post:
>
>On re checking the web page, it acknowledges "big ugly"
>as an exception - yet it is easy to find many, many
>other exceptions:
>
>"Big fast car" gets 2 650 hits. "Fast big car" sounds
>obvious wrong, and only gets 59 hits,
I don't see a category in the list for qualities such as 'fast' if
objectively defined -- (eg 'able to sustain speeds over 100 mph' or
something).
If a person was thoughtfully comparing large cars with other large cars,,
I'd expect 'For a fast large car, look to X Brand' rather than 'big fast
car.'
>"small easy" gets 148 000 hits, "easy small" is yoda
>talk, and only gets 28 000 hits
Not necessary Yoda, just perhaps more specialized: . "For an easy small
press, look into Pushcart & Co."
>"small beautiful woman" is wrong
No, not if it's 'a woman who is both small and beautiful' rather than
'compared to other small women, she is a beautiful one'.
> "big handsome man" is right.
Common, but I think it's partly the idiomatic thing again, like 'big fast'
or 'big new'. 'A handsome big man' would be ok too, with a more thoughtful
emphasis.
Really I think such common words are not good tests for these rules.
R.L.
--
RL at houseboatontheganges dot com
for Indian river read styx
.
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