Don:

I enjoyed Ben Zimmer's article about Google +1, quite a coincidence since I had just finished reading another article by Zimmer and writing a response to him. I recommend his article in today's NY Times Sunday Book Review showing that--contrary to the claims of some literary critics--the language of fiction, even naturalistic or "colloquial" fiction, differs substantially from the language of speech or of nonfiction. He shows that phrases like "bolt upright" occur with far greater frequency in novels than in speech.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/books/review/the-mechanic-muse-the-jargon-of-the-novel-computed.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=review

I wrote Zimmer about his own use of "bolt upright" in the article:

Dear Mr. Zimmer,

 

I greatly enjoyed your NYT piece today.

 

One thing that made me sit bolt upright, however, was that you treated "bolt upright" as a verb. This took me aback because I couldn't remember encountering the phrase as anything but an adverbial (He sat bolt upright), with "bolt" as a degree adverb modifying "upright." The OED gives citations of adverbial "bolt upright" dating back to Chaucer. The OED also cites “bolt upright” as a verb but calls it "obs[olete] or arc[haic]." The most recent citation was an 1815 quotation from Smollett: “The patient, bolting upright in the bed, collared each of these assistants with the grasp of Hercules.” Surprisingly there was also a citation for transitive “bolt upright”: “Tales ... That bolt like hedge-hog-quills the hair upright.”

 

I also Googled “to bolt upright” and did find modern instances, such as “At the first crack of spring, the world seems to bolt upright, as if waking from a dream.” Your own usage is further indication that verbal "bolt upright" may be archaic no longer.

 

Best wishes,

Dick Veit



On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 11:53 AM, Don Stewart <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Take a look at this article, about Google +1. What's in a verb?

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/07/31/1tastic/


Don Stewart
www.writeforcollege.com
www.writing123.com


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