tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post2935721763909916684..comments2024-03-02T02:26:00.928-05:00Comments on bleakonomy: More bad arguments for defensible positionstetracontadigonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04604381739383227553noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post-42732073862201238862009-10-05T10:48:34.402-04:002009-10-05T10:48:34.402-04:00Dan, I'm sad to see "unique" go. And...Dan, I'm sad to see "unique" go. And much more so "literally." But we can't stop the train of linguistic progress. In "Northanger Abbey," an intelligent character chides a slightly air-headed girl about "nice." She uses it to mean "kind" or "good," while he wants to preserve the meaning of "fastidious." Again, there is no real meaning of "unique" when you can't get everyone to agree what it means.<br /><br />My husband, in a lengthy conversation about unique, pointed out that since every object is unique with respect to position in space-time, we are always talking about degrees of uniqueness. There are also more and less relevant ways to be unique. Something can be trivially unique, such as an incidence of nose-scratching. Something can be non-trivially unique, but only in one way. Something can also be non-trivially unique in many, many ways, all of them relevant. So it can make sense to talk aboiut something "very unique": an object that is non-trivially unique in relevant ways.<br /><br />And my use of the phrase "militant grammarians" was a nod to DFW!Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09953173396955681485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post-45025767646439707602009-10-05T10:43:05.232-04:002009-10-05T10:43:05.232-04:00I think what Shea suggests is that, in fact, the m...I think what Shea suggests is that, in fact, the modified use of 'unique' (e.g., 'most unique') pre-dates the use as insistently unmodified. This is notable, as most correctors of the former usage will insist that the latter is the _only_ usage. Thus, it does not beg he question to point out that the modified use has existed for a long time.Lexinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post-51823345538239582532009-10-04T22:22:24.038-04:002009-10-04T22:22:24.038-04:00Verbing weirds language in a very unique way.
To ...Verbing weirds language in a very unique way.<br /><br />To boldly go forward, we must decide to really eliminate the split infinitive.<br /><br />As for final prepositions, this is something up with which we should not put.Gadfly Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post-60396238350292392732009-10-04T15:28:01.115-04:002009-10-04T15:28:01.115-04:00Oh, NOOOOOOOO!!!! You're defending one of m...Oh, <i> NOOOOOOOO!!!! </i> You're defending one of my signature linguistic pet peeves! "Very unique" drives me crazy. Is this a kind way of suggesting that I should get the hell over it?<br /><br />I know that I refer to him a great deal (because dude was absolutely brilliant), but David Foster Wallace wrote a particularly good essay on this subject.<br /><br />http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.htmlDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11213051268392108382noreply@blogger.com