LINGUIST List 13.2912

Sun Nov 10 2002

Qs: "Balding" as Adj,"So...that" Structure

Editor for this issue: Dina Kapetangianni <dinalinguistlist.org>



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Directory

  • Scott J. Baxter, Sum of query prescriptive objections to "balding".
  • Haiyong Liu, the English so...that Structure

    Message 1: Sum of query prescriptive objections to "balding".

     Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 11:06:44 -0500
    From: Scott J. Baxter <baxterspurdue.edu>
    Subject: Sum of query prescriptive objections to "balding".


    On October 28 I posted a query asking if anyone was aware of any prescriptive objections to the use of "balding" as an adjective as in _a spare, already balding man in his mid-thirties_. I received a number of useful replies the main points of which are:

    1) The word balding as an adjective, according to the OED, was first attested in 1938 and several responders think it appeared in American English later than that.

    2) No current dictionary of English suggests that its use (in prescriptive terms) is wrong, but older editions like the 1980 American Heritage and Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (1989)do. There is also a brief entry on this word in the New Fowler's Modern English Usage (3rd; 1996).

    3)Ergo, this was an example of language change in progress some twenty years ago and now the adjective balding seems to have become well assimilated into English which explains why the prescriptivists no longer complain about it.

    The following people gave me some very useful replies:

    Clyde Hankey, Steve R. (No surname listed in message), Heidi Angstrom, Astika Kapagoda, Liess Vantine, Jeremy Whistle, James VandenBosch, Gil Phillip, Laura Callahan, Anthea Gupta, Nick Caffrey, Remy Viredaz, Micahawl Swan.



    Scott J. Baxter Purdue University Department of English 500 Oval Drive West Lafayette IN 47907-2038 USA http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~baxters/

    Message 2: the English so...that Structure

     Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 19:50:24 +0000
    From: Haiyong Liu <haiyonglucla.edu>
    Subject: the English so...that Structure


    Does anyone know of any recent literature on the English "so...that" structure, particularly with so in a predicate position; for example: I was so quick that nobody noticed me. Mary got so angry (that) she left without saying Goodbye.

    Thank you very much. Haiyong Liu