Date sent:              Tue, 6 Feb 2001 18:43:07 -0800
Send reply to:          Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar              <[log in to unmask]>
From:                   "Paul E. Doniger" <[log in to unmask]>
Organization:           The Total Tutor
Subject:                Re: Query about "act professional and speak professional"
To:                     [log in to unmask]

>couldn't we look at the word, 'different' as a quotation,
> which would make it a 'thing' and therefore a kind of noun? Not that the
> word itself is a noun, but a response or a thought is a noun.

I agree with the general line of reasoning here, since word usage is
very flexible in terms of the part of speech function.  Most words
can function as several different parts of speech simply by using
them that way in a sentence.  For example, I didn't like the tone of
the phrase "linguistic rhythm" (a little too clinical for my purposes),
and I was racking my brain for an adjective corresponding to
"language" instead of "linguistics," and finally I came up with ...
"language," a noun that I simply used as an adjective:  "language
rhythm."  Seems to work!

However, there does seem to be a limit to this flexibility.  "different"
could be used as a noun but it seems to be stretching it (to me
anyway).  Can you have a "different," can you see the "different"
walking down the street?  Just barely.  And then it doesn't seem to
mean "different" any more.

But to Paul Donninger, I just want to say "keep on thinking big!"
-----------------------------------------------------
Sincerely, Robert Einarsson
please visit me at
www.artsci.gmcc.ab.ca/people/einarssonb

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