Category: Adjectives
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‘Handsome Devil’
I visited a couple of aunts some years back. As I entered her house, Aunt Ada exclaimed, "My, you are a handsome devil!" Aunt Margaret said to Ada, "Don't call him a devil!" But of course Ada did no such thing; Margaret failed to appreciate that 'handsome' in 'handsome devil' in this context and almost…
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‘Old News’
'Old' in 'old news' is an alienans adjective. Add it to the list.
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‘Rhetorical’ in ‘Rhetorical Question’
Another example of an alienans adjective.
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Meaning is Tied to Use; Syntax Too?
It would seem so. Consider the way Peggy Noonan, no slouch of a political commentator, uses the adjective 'crazy' in this passage about Donald Trump: He had to be a flame-haired rebuke to the establishment. He in fact had to be a living insult—no political experience, rude, crude ways—to those who’ve failed us. He had…
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Fiction and Alienans Adjectives
David Brightly comments: As you use them, the terms 'fictional', 'intentional', 'possible', 'incomplete', and others like 'past' have a distinctive effect on the concept terms they qualify. Ordinary adjectives have the effect of narrowing the extension of the concept term they qualify: the red balls are a subset of the balls, the female prime ministers…
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Chauvinism and Male Chauvinism
In her President Obama's Silly, Sexist Defense of Susan Rice, Kirsten Powers writes, It's absurd and chauvinistic for Obama to talk about the woman he thinks should be Secretary of State of the United States as if she needs the big strong man to come to her defense because a couple of Senators are criticizing…
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New PC Expression: ‘Customers of Size’
Or at least it was new when I first ran an ancestorof this post on the old blog back in 2008 (26 July). …………….. No doubt you have heard of 'people of color' not to be confused with 'colored people.' (But what exactly is the difference in reality?) Just this morning I discovered that some…
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‘Legally Dead’
Someone declared legally dead is presumed dead. Such a person may or may not be dead. So I say 'legally' in 'legally dead' is an alienans adjective. What is the test for an alienans adjective? Let 'FG' be a phrase in which 'F' is an adjective and 'G' a noun. 'F' is alienans if and only…
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‘Material’ as *Alienans* in ‘Material Implication’
The topic of conditionals is ancient, not as ancient as Aristotle and logic itself, but damn near: hard thinking on this topic began with the Dialectical School which featured such worthies as Philo the Logician and Diodorus Cronus, circa late 4th to mid-3rd centuries B.C. In nuce, those gentlemen had wrapped their minds around what…
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‘Superb’
'Superb' is still able to convey a hint of the Latin, superbia, pride. A thoughtful writer bears this in mind. But in a world of thoughtless readers, there is not much call for thoughtful writers. This reflection occasioned by a sentence from a secondary source on Pascal: "[The extrinsic proofs of Christianity] are humiliating to the…
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More Fun With Alienans Adjectives and an Application
My bathroom sinks are made of faux marble, which is to say that they are not made of marble: false marble is not marble. So faux and 'false' function here as alienans adjectives. Similar cases: false gold, falsies, false friend. But 'false' in 'false teeth' is not an alienans adjective: false teeth are teeth just…
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Still More on Alienans Constructions
Our old friend 'Ocham' writes: I read your discussion of 'alienans' with interest. It is another of those interesting words (like 'inexistence') that look as though it comes from scholastic philosophy, but apparently doesn't. I use my Latin site searcher in cases of doubt – this analyses texts of specific writers and periods. None of…
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More on Alienans Adjectives: Relative Truth and Derived Intentionality
I am sitting by a pond with a child. The child says, "Look, there are three ducks." I say, "No, there are two ducks, one female, the other male, and a decoy." The point is that a decoy duck is not a duck, but a piece of wood shaped and painted to appear (to a…
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A Quiz on Alienans Adjectives
First read study the post Alienans Adjectives. Then take the quiz. Answers below the fold. Classify the adjectives in the following examples as either specifying (S), alienans (A), or neither (N). Much of course depends on the context in which the phrase is used. So imagine a plausible and common context. 1. Deciduous tree. 2. Alleged…
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Alienans Adjectives
A reader inquires: I find your blog interesting and educational. A while ago you mentioned that there is a term for an adjective which is used not to specify a particular sort of the noun which it modifies, but rather a thing which does not meet the definition of that noun. (I've likely somewhat mangled…