LINGUIST List 9.774

Sat May 23 1998

Disc: Recent change in English

Editor for this issue: Elaine Halleck <elainelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Jim Swanson, Re: 9.768, Disc: Recent Change in English
2. Michael Hughes, Re: 9.758, Disc: English Change
3. Earl Herrick, recent changes in English: "fun"

Message 1: 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: 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
> (joelexc.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."

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."