Both of these queries seem explainable to me.

'Now' and 'once again' are each adverbs, 'once again' being a phrasal adverb.

'Professional' is also being used adverbially. English seems to be
gradually losing its -ly adverbial suffix, and will probably eventually
be like German, in which adverbs and adjectives look exactly the same.
The loss is most common on frequent words like 'slow', but I can see it
happening more widely. It may also be that some dialects of English are
farther along this path than others.

An interesting case is Apple's slogan 'Think different'. A lot of people
interpret this as an 'incorrect' adverb, but I read it as an adjective;
something along the lines of 'think: "different"' rather than 'think differently'.

But then maybe I'm weird.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant 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.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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