Use Of Adjectives Research Articles

Kuidas ära tunda adjektiivi? Korpuskäitumise mustrite analüüs

Artiklis uurime adjektiivi morfosüntaktilisi tunnuseid ja selgitame, kuivõrd on prototüüpsele adjektiivile omistatavad tunnused (nt ühildumine, võrrete moodustamine) adjektiiviklassile eriomased. Loome neile tunnustele tuginedes parameetrid, mille abil eristame korpuse andmete põhjal adjektiive teistest sõnaliikidest. Tüüpilise adjektiivi korpusprofiili tuvastamise kaugem eesmärk on rakenduse loomine, mis võimaldaks leksikograafidel ebaselgete juhtumite puhul kontrollida sõna adjektiviseerumise astet. Tutvustame kuue parameetri testimise tulemust 12 sõnarühma peal, millest igaühte kuulub 10 sõna. Sõnavalikul arvestame adjektiiviklassi piiripealseid juhtumeid ja leksikograafilisi kitsaskohti. Analüüsime, mil määral hälbivad erinevad testrühmad testitud parameetrite põhjal prototüüpsest adjektiiviklassi esindajast ning vaatleme ka variatsiooni adjektiiviklassi sees. Kõrvale kaldeanalüüs võimaldab välja selgitada parima eristusvõimega parameetrid. Eukleidilise kauguse mõõtmine eristab hästi adjektiivisarnased sõnad ja rühmad nendest, mis sarnanevad prototüüpsele adjektiivile vähem. *** How to recognize adjectives? An analysis of corpus patterns This study was inspired by a survey of Estonian lexicographers (Paulsen, Vainik and Tuulik 2019), where the lexicographers expressed the need for a new digital tool that would facilitate word class identification for ambiguous cases. In the case of adjectives, the lexicographers emphasized the difficulty of determining if a verb participle has sufficient adjectival use to be included in dictionaries as an adjective. In the article, we examine the morphosyntactic features characteristic of the adjective class and test different parameters in the corpora to differentiate adjectives from other word classes. We provide an overview of the test results of six parameters. In the study we analysed 12 groups of 10 words each. The test groups and test words were chosen manually, with consideration given to the problematic cases outlined by the lexicographers. We compared different types of adjectives or near to adjectives (the test groups) as well as different word classes (the control groups). To analyse the parameters’ capability to set adjectives apart, a deviation study was conducted. We determined a normative range for prototypical adjectives and set the minimum and maximum value for every parameter. In addition, we calculated the deviation of other test groups from the prototypical adjective range. The groups of particular focus (regular verb participles vs. adjectives) were best differentiated by three parameters. The sentence beginning testword+noun parameter (which determined if and how often a test word starts a sentence in the complement position) sets participles apart with 90% accuracy. Also, the parameter that measured the existence of comparative forms for test words was 100% accurate. The adverb parameter (which measured how often a test word is preceded by an adverb) was able to distinguish adjectives from verb participles with 80% accuracy. Among all groups, the comparative form parameter was the most accurate in the deviation study at setting prototypical adjectives apart from other test groups. A Euclidean distance analysis was able to differentiate adjective-like test words and test groups from others that do not behave similarly to prototypical adjectives. As all tested parameters produced meaningful results and were able to differentiate some word classes from adjectives, they can be input for a new digital tool which would show a word’s deviation from prototypical word class representatives to help lexicographers with word-class-related decisions.

Contextually categorised adjective as predicate in Mandarin

This paper revisits a well-known puzzle that adjectives in Mandarin generally require overt degree morphology to extend a positive interpretation. Based on the framework of Borer's Contextual Categorisation, I argue that this is because most Mandarin adjectives are category-less roots which need to merge in a position required to be A-equivalent by a functional node within the extended projections of AP. When degree morphemes are unavailable, roots can rely upon higher nodes in the extended projection line of AP as the head of CP. The analysis predicts that a language needs degree morphology for adjective predicates only when it has a large collection of category-less roots but no adjective markers, which rules English and Japanese out. Two observations support the root-categorisation assumption. One is the adjectival use of some words which are more typically interpreted as nouns. It's expected because roots naturally fit into positions of any kind. The other one is the lack of obligatory degree morphemes when adjectives are used as prenominal modifiers, since the modification marker de is an equally qualified categoriser for roots. The proposal indicates that Mandarin is not particularly special in the predicate domain, but just influenced by settings of universal modules.

‘’t is ça va dan he’

Abstract This article discusses the adjectivization of the Dutch interjections ça va and ok. argues that this adjectivization process was driven by analogical relations based on broad syntactic categories. A corpus investigation and acceptability judgements show (i) that the adjectival use of ça va and ok has become more frequent since Lemmens’s research, but that their adjectivization is not (yet) completed, (ii) that not only abstract generalizations, but also lower-level generalizations and specific constructions play a crucial role in the adjectivization of both interjections, and, (iii) that ça va and ok already as interjections showed limited grammatical behaviour, making them more susceptible to adjectivization. We argue – contra – that not (only) reinterpretation has led to the adjectivization of both interjections, buth rather their lexical and horizontal links in the constructional network.

«Adjetividad» en ocaina (familia Witoto, Amazonia noroccidental): adverbios, nombres y un adjetivo

A través de la descripción del ocaina exploramos fenómenos a menudo confundidos con la clase léxica adjetival, que remitirían más bien a un concepto amplio que se ha llamado «adjetividad» o a los que simplemente debería aludirse con denominaciones alternativas. La metodología propuesta para diferenciar tales fenómenos, comprender su escopo y demarcarlos del adjetivo, es definir este último a partir de su especificidad en cada nivel de análisis lingüístico. En el nivel sintáctico, hablamos, de un lado, de la función modificadora o epíteto del adjetivo, que distinguimos de los empleos adjetivales de nombres y adverbios; por otro lado, tenemos la función atributo o predicativa (no exclusiva del adjetivo), que en ocaina no es desempeñada por el único adjetivo de la lengua. En cuanto a la semántica, constatamos que los conceptos descriptivos o de propiedad (llamados «adjetivales») son expresados en ocaina mayormente por lexemas adverbiales, así como por nombres y por el paradigma de morfemas clasificatorios de discretización nominal.

Chosen

Abstract The adjectival use of the word chosen is in the focus of this study. Based on data taken from the Corpus of Historical American English, the adjectival characteristics of chosen are investigated first. As chosen is a participial adjective, its uses with reference to its participial character are analysed. The third line of investigation outlines the co-occurrence patterns of chosen with nouns. The results from the corpus-linguistic analyses will be related to the theoretically deduced notions ‘canonical’ and ‘non-canonical’. A discussion in how far the notions ‘canonical’ and ‘non-canonical’ can be related to the corpus-linguistic results follows.

A diachronic study on the adjectival use of French nouns ending in -iste

The adjectival use of nouns in <italic>-iste</italic> (cf. <italic>le parti papiste</italic> ‘the party of the Papistes’) sets French apart from Latin or Italian, two languages that prefer the explicit derivation by means of <italic>-icus/-ico</italic> for that same function (cf. Lat. <italic>papisticus</italic>, It. <italic>papistico</italic>). This French behavior is all the more surprising given that all early derivatives were loan translations from Latin. However, after some medieval coinages in <italic>-istique</italic> – such as <italic>artistique</italic> or <italic>cabalistique</italic> – in the sixteenth century conversions began to dominate the scene, first with the names of followers and somewhat later with agent nouns as well. Today, in a certain style of French, almost any noun in <italic>-iste</italic> can be used as an adjective, be it in a qualifying function (cf. <italic>une agilité claveciniste</italic>) or in a relational one (cf. <italic>la littérature claveciniste</italic>).

Učinki transferja pri absolutni in relativni rabi pridevnikov med slovenskimi študenti angleščine

Prispevek analizira učinke transferja med slovenščino in angleščino na področju malo raziskanih absolutnih in relativnih rab pridevnikov. Teoretična osnova, ki loči podsistema standarda (notranji, zunanji) in stopnje (osnovna, srednja, visoka), je nadgrajena s praktičnim preizkusom, v kolikšni meri slovenski študenti anglistike, katerih znanje je na ravni C1 in C2, na tem področju (neustrezno) prenašajo jezikovne strategije iz enega jezika v drugega. Rezultati kažejo, da študenti, vključeni v preizkus, ob prevajanju iz slovenščine v angleščino v veliki večini ohranjajo absolutne primernike, čeprav so ti v angleščini veliko redkejši. Po drugi strani tudi ob prevajanju v materni jezik znaten del študentov ohranja absolutne presežnike, ki so produktivna strategija v angleščini, v slovenščini pa se pojavljajo le redko.

The Language of War

INTRODUCTIONMichael Walzer begins his seminal Just and Unjust Wars with a linguistic claim: ordinary language use provides evidence about the nature of war.1 This paper explores this claim and the linguistic method as applied to just war theory.I begin with Walzer's central thesis about the language of war, which I call the Adjectival-Adverbial Distinction or the A-A Distinction. This is a two-part claim. Roughly, Walzer first claims that ordinary language distinguishes between adjectival and adverbial claims about just war. Specifically, adjectival uses indicate jus ad bellum considerations, while adverbial uses indicate jus in bello considerations: for instance, ?that was a just declaration of war' versus ?that war was fought justly.' The second part of Walzer's claim is that this language use indicates a deep distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello.In the first section of the paper I attack Walzer's A-A distinction; I argue there is no tight or deep connection between adjectival usage and jus ad bellum considerations and adverbial usage and jus in bello considerations. I begin by arguing that Walzer's own use of war language does not indicate any rigid connection between adjectival jus ad bellum and adverbial jus in bello. I then argue that any adjectival jus ad bellum claim can be redescribed as adverbial and any adverbial jus in bello claim can be redescribed as adjectival.From this first section I conclude that ordinary language use does not support the A-A distinction; as an empirical fact about language use, it appears adjectival and adverbial use does not track a distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello. In the second section of the paper, I argue for a different usage pattern that tracks the seeming distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello: the former involves primarily considerations about the decisions and actions of groups or individuals of greater status (e.g., President, Legislature, Country), while the latter involves primarily considerations about decisions and actions of groups or individuals of lesser status (e.g., soldiers). I argue ordinary language use provides evidence for this ?Hierarchical Distinction.'In the third section I argue that the Hierarchical Distinction suggests a theoretical distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello. On this account, jus ad bellum acts and decisions have a positive role; they change the sociopolitical status from peace to war (and perhaps into even more finely individuated event types). Jus in bello acts and decisions, on the other hand, are framed by the event status that is first determined by jus ad bellum acts and decisions. I also argue that although the A-A Distinction is false in practice (actual language use does not support it), this proposed conception of just war theory makes sense of why some think the A-A Distinction should apply: we tend to think of jus ad bellum in static terms, best described adjectivally, while we tend to think of jus in bello in dynamic terms, best described adverbially.These conclusions imply that the positive power of jus ad bellum acts is fundamental to the ethics of war, and I conclude by arguing for a jus ad bellum requirement of declaration of war. The results of the previous sections imply that jus ad bellum involves an implicit or explicit status-articulation. I argue that declaring war is a paradigm performative speech act: one which itself can change the social-political landscape and ethical considerations of war and one that ought to accompany any jus ad bellum decision to enter war.I. THE ADJECTIVAL-ADVERBIAL (A-A) DISTINCTIONEarly in Just and Unjust Wars, Michael Walzer claims that a feature of ordinary language use maps onto a deep distinction about the nature of war. Specifically, Walzer claims that our linguistic expressions of jus ad bellum (right of war) principles are adjectival in character. On the other hand, our linguistic expressions of jus in bello (right in war) principles are adverbial in character:The first kind of judgment is adjectival in character: we say that a particular war is just or unjust. …

Capital’s Fastness as Sticking Point

Before had anything to do with speed, it referred to quality of being firmly or securely fixed (OED). Somewhere in Middle English, its meaning shifted to refer to closeness or immediacy with idea of rapid movement only later being reflected in adjectival use. It is this last sense of quickness that is taken up most directly in current references to capitalism. Capitalism gains its momentum by reducing points of fastness, eroding points of security to increase rapid accrual of profit, or so story goes. In critical culture arising around capitalism, its speed is often posed as core of its evil, perhaps most famously by Paul Virilio, but also by Sunday magazine critics lamenting breakneck pace of modern living who advocate instead for slower choices. Slowness has also been taken up in more radical positions, from Bartleby, who prefers not to, to Franco Bifo Berardi, who argues for political potential in expanded notions of both psychic and social depression. What these accounts have in common is a binary sense of fast/slow: if one is slow, one resists capitalism; if one is fast, one cannot be radical. When individuals begin to become immobilized psychically, emotionally, or physically, rapid, exuberant flow of neoliberal capitalism has reached its limit--fast capitalism has fully eroded points of fastness, but, instead of an unrestricted, quick-flowing freedom, many of those who live here find themselves caught in eddies or whirlpools. From these situations--what Lauren Berlant calls impasses--one can neither move forward nor backward; instead, best that can be hoped is merely to keep up. For many affective experience of what Berardi calls the universe running too fast is one of inertia (180). In What is Philosophy?, Deleuze and Guattari describe experience of psychic chaos in terms of infinite speeds that blend into immobility of colourless and silent nothingness they traverse (201); against this threat of blankness, brain grasps at any thread of order, they suggest. This description of brain and thought works as a metaphor for experience of capitalism: there are those who live in chronic vacancy and invisibility spawned by its chaotic speeds. Working on a just-in-time schedule, enduring long commutes, shouldering loads of debt, one can experience churn of capital as a kind of fast-paced slow violence from which there is no clear exit. This is not a fastness of security but a fastness of fixity, of impasse. …

#Schizophrenia: Use and misuse on Twitter

BackgroundThe role and prevention of stigma in mental illness is an area of evolving research. AimsThe present study is the first to examine the use and misuse of the word ‘schizophrenia’ on Twitter.com in comparison with another illness (diabetes) by analyzing Tweets that use the adjective and noun forms of schizophrenia and diabetes. MethodTweets containing one of four search terms (#schizophrenia, #schizophrenic, #diabetes, #diabetic) were collected over a forty-day time period. After establishing inter-rater reliability, Tweets were rated along three dimensions: medical appropriateness, negativity, and sarcasm. Chi square tests were conducted to examine differences in the distributions of each parameter across illnesses and across each word form (noun versus adjective). ResultsSignificant differences were seen between the two illnesses (i.e., among “schizophrenia”, “schizophrenic”, “diabetes”, and “diabetic”) along each parameter. Tweets about schizophrenia were more likely to be negative, medically inappropriate, sarcastic, and used non-medically. The adjective (“schizophrenic”) was more often negative, medically inappropriate, sarcastic, and used non-medically than the noun “schizophrenia.” Schizophrenia tweets were more likely to be negative and sarcastic when used non-medically and in a medically inappropriate manner. ConclusionsOur findings confirm the presence of a great deal of misuse of the term schizophrenia on Twitter, and that this misuse is considerably more pronounced by the adjectival use of the illness. These findings have considerable implications for efforts to combat stigma, particularly for youth anti-stigma efforts.

Exploring the function of relative sentences in New Testament Greek

The traditional view of the function of relative sentences in the Greek New Testament differed markedly from that in many modern languages. This view was challenged in the mid-1980s and a number of striking correspondences with a variety of modern (and some classical) languages were pointed out, despite some differences. The purpose of this article is, amongst others, to explore functional aspects of the relative sentence against this background, and to provide further substantiation for the new view and some new perspectives in the light of recent literature. The conclusion is that the view of the functions of the relative sentence, as developed in the mid-1980s, still seems valid. The view is also supported to a large extent by recent literature, especially with respect to the relative sentence’s adjectival use, despite differences relating to nuances and terminology. However, recent New Testament grammars still distinguish so-called ‘conditional’, ‘concessive’, ‘causal’, ‘final’ and ‘resultative’ relative sentences as part of their adverbial use, despite strong evidence to the contrary. The conclusion reached is that relative sentences seem to have the following functions in New Testament Greek, which correspond to their functions in numerous modern languages: (1) Identifying a referent(s) with or without an overt nominal antecedent. (2) Providing background or additional information for a nominal or sentential antecedent in the form of a parenthesis, explanation or concession, or some combination of these. (3) Qualifying a verb with regard to time, location or manner. (4) Functioning as a conjoined sentence.

The English Katéchon. La mediazione teologico-politica in epoca Tudor

The essay discusses the protean shapes of the politics of memory which conformed English tradition. The intellectual construction of a ‘remembered past’ was inscribed within a theological promise of redemption and salvation; the millenaristic thought created a visionary imagination and supported the recognition of antichristic and katechontic bodies. Moving from these premises, the Author highlights the pivotal role played by Queen Elizabeth I in giving substance to English memory. The main purpose is to investigate the process of cultural negotiation which governed the onto juridical threshold between Elizabeth’s Flesh (that is her natural, physical, female and even sexual consistence) and Elizabeth’s body of sovereignty. The canonical representation construed what, in a very original manner, the Author defines as Katechontic Elizabeth , making an adjectival use of the greek word katechon with its strong theological ascendancy. According to this approach, Elizabeth was depicted as the mundane force destined to fight against the Antichrist, historically embodied by the Roman Pope. In this framework the Author outlines the multifarious devices used to legitimate the cult of the Virgin Queen or, more incisively, to transform a virginal flesh into a body of salvation, evocatively into a katechontic body . They fundamentally were: an apocalyptic narrative, an apologetic plot, the projection of a millenaristic order and a redundant iconography.

On the difference between a ‘reference material’ and a ‘material reference’

At the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2011, the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, IRMM, of the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, organized an International Conference on ‘The Future of Reference—Science and Innovation’ on 23–25 November at IRMM in Geel, Belgium; see a Meeting Report in Accred Qual Assur (2011) 16:327–328. The contributions to that Topical Issue of ACQUAL are related to presentations at this Conference. The opening of the Conference consisted of the inauguration of an impressively large and well-equipped new building for the production and certification of Reference Materials by EC Director-General Heinz Zourek for Enterprise and Minister-President of Flanders, Kris Peeters. Two rather important events intended to serve Metrology in Chemistry for the European Union and, in fact, for the whole world. The occasion to devote our attention to the role of (certified) reference materials. The English language has this remarkable feature in scientific as well as in daily parlance, of admitting the ‘adjectival’ use of a noun to another noun whereby a noun is used as an adjective to another noun. There are many examples of that: morning paper, London Underground, Labour party, etc. The first noun in the examples given qualifies more explicitly the meaning of the second noun. At first sight, the adjectival use of the noun ‘reference’ (entry 2.6–1 in [1]) to the noun ‘material’ indicates that ‘material’ is the most important feature of the certified reference material CRM. The (adjectival) noun indicates that the material is intended to be used as a ‘reference’. Is that what we really intend to say? To answer that question, we need to recognize the use we intend to make of the CRM. Will we use it as a ‘trueness control material’ (unfortunately not defined in the International vocabulary of metrology—VIM [2], or as a ‘calibrator’ (entry 5.12 in [2])? A trueness control material serves the purpose of applying a correction (entry 2.53 in [2]) to compensate for a systematic effect (entry 2.17 Note 2 in [2]) somewhere in the process of ‘measurement’. A calibrator serves the purpose of calibrating a measurement. Is ‘material’ the most important role we expect from a CRM? Or is it the ‘reference’? When we compensate for a systematic effect when performing a measurement, we clearly do that by way of a multiplication factor. Such a factor can be determined comparing a measurement of the value embodied in the CRM and the certified value provided by the certifying CRM producer. This is a numerical operation needing a numerical value and cannot be performed using a material. Conclusion: The really important feature of a CRM we use is the certified value embodied in (or carried by) the ‘material’. The feature ‘reference’ is more important than the feature ‘material’. The latter only serves as a carrier of the former. That does not correspond to the hierarchy in the terminology we use, and where we concluded that the material was the most important feature.

Tuning In: Diasporas at the BBC World Service

This article looks at diaspora through the transformations of an established public service broadcaster, the BBC World Service in a fast changing landscape of global broadcasting, by considering some of the findings of the AHRC-funded Tuning In: Contact Zones at the BBC World Service, which is part of the Diasporas, Migration and Identities program. Tuning In has six themes, each of which focuses upon the role of the BBC WS: The Politics of Translation, Diasporic Nationhood, Religious Transnationalism, Sport across Diasporas, Migrating Music and Drama for Development

Yi on 2

Byeong-Uk Yi has argued that number words like ‘two’ primarily function as numerical predicates as in ‘Socrates and Hippias are two (in number)’, and other grammatical uses of number words can be paraphrased in terms of the predicative use. This paper critically examines Yi’s paraphrase scheme and also some other alternative schemes, and argues that the adjectival use of number words as in ‘The Scots and the Irish are two peoples’ cannot be paraphrased in terms of the predicative use.

The Real, the Apparent, and What is &lt;i&gt;eigentlich&lt;/i&gt;

In this paper, I will propose a uniform analysis for adjectival and&#x0D; certain instances of adverbial eigentlich. The analysis rests&#x0D; on the assumption that eigentlich contrasts the nominal&#x0D; content of a concept C with a contextually given notion of&#x0D; phenomenological evidence for C-hood. eigentlich&#x0D; offers the semantic frame to refer to two ways of C-hood which&#x0D; are usually supplied by context. In the adjectival use, the discourse&#x0D; content should provide an N exemplar in the true sense (an&#x0D; eigentliches N) along with an apparent N, thereby&#x0D; proving the two notions to be different. In the adverbial use, the&#x0D; message conveyed is usually that the actual world nominally&#x0D; satisfies some proposition p (eigentlich, p) while&#x0D; the actual world looks as if a contrasting proposition&#x0D; q were the case. The analysis improves on earlier accounts in&#x0D; German descriptive linguistics in that it offers a fully compositional&#x0D; account of the semantic and pragmatic contribution of&#x0D; eigentlich in a wide variety of constructions, including&#x0D; focus, contrastive topic and questions. The analysis proposes a&#x0D; delineation of eigentlich as an emotive marker which differs&#x0D; from the content use in prosody, syntax, focus sensitivity and meaning.

Copular constructions and adjectival uses of bare nouns in French: a case of syntactic recategorization?

This paper deals with three copular constructions in French that take bare nominals as a predicative complement (attribut du sujet). From a lexical point of view, these constructions, which are typical of colloquial French, are very open frames. After a detailed analysis of the syntactic and semantic properties of these constructions, I will examine them in the light of a more theoretical question, viz. that of the categorial status of the bare nouns involved. More precisely, I will determine to which extent they are ‘recategorized’ into adjectives.On the basis of a fine-grained syntactic and semantic analysis, I provide a nuanced—gradual—account of adjectivization. First, I discard what I call the ‘lexicalized’ cases of recategorization, i.e. the fully adjectivized ones (vache, chatte,…), in order to focus on ‘syntactic recategorization’, i.e. the occasional adjectival use of (bare) nouns in the constructions under investigation. Then, I show that the first of the three constructions involves a primarily syntactic (i.e. non permanent), contextual recategorization of the bare noun. By contrast, the second adjectival use, which is characterized by a superficial adjectivization, involves the copula as well and should be considered as a copular construction sui generis. Finally, the third use is somewhere in between the two other syntactically as well as semantically.By way of conclusion, I suggest that the best way to account for the recategorization of bare nouns into ‘adjectival’ nodes might still be Tesnière's (1959) concept of translatif. A parallel will be drawn with the role of determiners in nominalizations.

Adjectives, stereotypicality, and comparison

Japanese has a large number of evidential and modal expressions. Many of the inferential evidentials – mitai, yoo, rashii – also have an adjectival use. On this use, they make a claim about the prototypicality of some object or individual with respect to another class of object, in the case of rashii, or about the similarity of these two objects, for yoo and mitai. This paper provides a compositional semantics for these adjectives, claiming that they are evaluated in terms of the degree to which they instantiate a set of properties (conventionally) associated with a class of object.

Modern American Usage: A Guide (review)

Reviews1 69 Modern American Usage: A Guide. Wilson Follett. Revised by Erik Wensberg . New York: Hill & Wang. 1998. Pp. xviii + 362. $25.00. WS ien Wilson Follett's Modern American Usage was published in 1966, it was warmly welcomed. Modeled after H. W Fowler's Modern English Usage (1926), it attracted a large readership and went through fifteen printings. In this revision, Erik Wensberg remains faithful to the spirit of the original without suspending his criticaljudgment. His goal was to review every entry "for its use to present day writers," deleting entries that have lost their relevance and revising others to take account of changes in meaning and usage. The result is a book less doctrinaire than the 1966 edition, better written , and, at 362 pages, considerably shorter, even though it includes 500 new words. Those who want a well-reasoned affirmation of traditional grammar and usage will be well served by the new edition. Wensberg relegated Follett's tendentious introductory essay, with its caricature of professional linguists, to the back of the book, where it appears, more suitably placed, as an appendix. The brief new preface is notable for its style as well as its content, and it sets the tone for the rest of the book. The first entry, a, an, the, has been shortened by a third, without losing essentials. What was retained has been greatly improved at many points by deft line editing, also typical of the entire revision. Essential distinctions are carefully pointed out: changes in percentage are not the same as changes in percentage points; journalistic and journalese are not synonymous. Wensberg offers a heavy infusion of new words under such Fowleresque headings as popularized technicalities and vogue words and treats them with reasonable skepticism and discernment. He's not happy with the transitive use of the verb grow, as in President Clinton's familiar phrase, "grow the economy." Anyone can grow vegetables and hair, he notes, but "to liken these idiomatic and natural growings to inducing the growth of an economy goes against common sense." From time to time there's a lighter touch, at the entry me, for example : "... An American knocks at a friend's door, and on hearing the call Who is it?, chokes on the natural response, It's me. But American usage long ago licensed the colloquial "It's me" despite the purist preference for the grammatically chaste It's I. Follett noted that 'It's me and That's me are indispensable to friendship and domestic life.' " In his treatment of a number of familiar disputed usages, Wensberg stoutly tries to uphold tradition, even when fighting a losing battle. Like Fowler and Follett, he bemoans the increasing use of due to as a preposition in place of owing to or because of. He insists that the original adjectival use of due, as when "a disease is due to an infection," is "the only appropriate one," supporting Follett , who had written in his frequently convoluted way, that "the loose and lawless due to is still rare in other than those who take advantage of every latitude." Nonetheless, Wensberg cites, without rebuttal, Theodore Bernstein's opinion offered many years ago that the objectionable due to will eventually be estab- 1 70Reviews lished as standard. Meanwhile, "the careful writer" should continue to avoid it and use because of. But others suggest that "eventually" may have arrived. In The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (1996), Burchfield draws heavily on illustrative quotations from established authors to show that "hostility to the construction is entirely a 20c. phenomenon." He expects it to form "part of the natural language of the 21c." The American HeritageDictionary oftheEnglish Language, Third Edition (1996) lists due to as a preposition meaning because of, though an accompanying usage note warns that "many critics" still consider it incorrect. Webster's Tenth New Collegiate Dictionary (1993) states that it has become so widely used and recognized as standard that "there is no solid reason to avoid due to" though it, too, carries a qualifying usage note. Wensberg takes a stronger stand against the acceptance of hopefully as a sentence adverb. He condemns the "misusage" as an "almost infallible warning of unarticulated...

In and out of the Closet

HE ADJECTIVAL USE of closet to distinguish between that which is public and that which is private is nearly four centuries old, as the following citation indicates: There are stage-sins and there are closet-sins (OED, s.v. 11, 1612-15; here and following, italics have been added to mark the forms discussed). The use of closet to refer to persons who are secret 'adherents to a doctrine or practicers of a behavior' (American Speech 44 [1969]: 239) may be nearly two centuries old; for Pederson (1974, p. 133) has suggested thatJefferson's 1815 statement (cited in the OED) Closet politicians merely, unpracticed in the knowledge of men, is an example of such usage. Whatever its vintage may be, the use of closet as an adjective meaning 'being so in private, secret' (6,000 Words, 1976) is quite common today. In contemporary use, closet is often associated with deviant sexual behavior, as illustrated by the following dialogue between Murray, Bunker's partner, and Fred, the waiter, as they discussed a customer's homosexuality on an episode of Archie Bunker's Place (broadcast on CBS, 10 Feb. 1980):