The interesting question in this discussion, one that really hasn't been dealt with, is why some innovations bother us and other don't.  "Hone in on", for example, while a much more recent innovation, is much more widely accepted.  Good writers and speakers use it and my students are almost unanimously surprised when I explain what's going on with it.  "Hopefully" as a sentence adverb still drives some to distraction while most people have accepted it.  But "fun" as an adjective, especially an inflected adjective, bothers a lot of people.  I'm curious whether there's any consistency to which ones have a harder time being accepted.  I assume that a major factor is social, who uses the innovative form, but is there more than social conditioning?

Herb 


I figured it was only a matter of time before "fun" made it all the way 
into the adjective category, signalled by acceptance of the -er and -est 
suffixes. This might be regional, too. I'll check with my students this 
quarter and see if they like "funner".

Certain things bother me, too: the vanishing of the "few/less" and 
"number/amount" distinctions, and the use of "infer" to mean "imply". 
But I realize that this is just my elitist self coming out. My linguist 
self reminds me that language changes "come from below" (as classist a 
saying as you might come up with)(though I guess it applies to age, 
too). When teaching about these matters, I make the situation clear to 
my students: Language change is mostly unstoppable, but a lot of people 
resist it nonetheless. They might wind up trying to impress such people, 
and in such a case they should err on the side of caution and use the 
more conservative form. But I make clear that this isn't a quality 
difference; it's a social judgment. They aren't worse people for using 
the innovative form.

It's true that in cases such as "infer", a useful meaning distinction is 
lost. Such changes are rarer than changes that have no impact on 
accurate communication, such as the loss of "whom" and the "few" vs. 
"less" loss.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •      Home page: 
http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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