Quoting Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>:
> Plura commentaria in uno voluta!
>
> Från: Alex Fink <000024@...>
>
[snip]
> > I can quote two other writers on the subject,
> > however; "Verbing weirds language." (Calvin &
> > Hobbes).
>
> Actually only Calvin. This was one of the
> instances when Hobbes was just a bemused
> spectator.
>
> >
> > Note that the noun "verb" becomes (via "zero-
> > derivation") the verb "verb" which is
> > morphologically altered to the action-nominal
> > "verbing". Note that the adjective "weird" is
> > zero-derived into the verb "weird".
> >
> > Also note that originally -- back in the mists
> > of English etymology -- "weird" was a noun. But
> > in more modern English it has become an
> > adjective.
>
> What really bemuses me is that Calvin didn't
> analyse "weird" as the past participle of a verb
> "weir", illiterate as he presumably is...
Calvin isn't illiterate. One can tell from the various strips where he's taking
(and mostly abysmally failing) various tests at school - he's clearly able to
read the questions.
--
Andreas Johansson