Hmmm.. Reading the conversation on verbing make me laugh so hard that I ,,,
wait for it,,, spitfire... ;^)
Mark Hooper
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Muller
To: triumph List
Sent: 05/12/02 8:59 PM
Subject: some grammatical details (small LBC content)
> >Randall - who's been fixing to fix his TR3 for a long time now <g>
1. "Fixin' to fix", not "fixing to fix". The subtlety is important.
2. Words like "Teglerize" and "verbalize" are not true examples of
verbing in the fullest Calvin&Hobbs sense. (Note, "verbing" is a
gerund, i.e. a noun, made from a noun-which-had-been-verbed). The
reason these others are not is that, at least in common usage, the
suffic "-ize" denotes the act of applying the root noun or its
properties. To be truly verbed, someone or something must be
"Teglered" or "verbed". ("Verbalize" is actually a hybrid, composed
of the "-ize" suffix and "verbal", which is most commonly an
adjective but perhaps a noun too in some odd way.) But "Simonize"
used as a verb *is* a true example of verbing, since "Simonize" is
the name of a product and thus a proper noun!
LBC content:
Of course, in the old days, we would "simonize our watches" to WWV
before starting out on a TDS rally.
The onset of winter heralds a new season of LBC usage, i.e. keeping
one's garage warm, wherein we will be wrenching. This use of
"wrench" as an intransitive verb is probably an example of verbing
the American name of a spanner. In normal usage, one wrenches
*something*, such as wrenching the muffler off the tailpipe or
wrenching one's back while attempting to do so. Full recovery from
this unfortunate event before next spring's driving season would
involve a triumph of modern medicine!
--
Jim Muller
jimmuller@pop.rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+
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