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Re: English question

From:Josh Roth <fuscian@...>
Date:Friday, November 30, 2001, 6:10
In a message dated 11/29/01 5:39:06 PM, agricola@WAM.UMD.EDU writes:

>Am 28.11.01, Josh Roth yscrifef: > >> I don't think it's an adjective. Some verbs can take adjective after >them, >> e.g.: >> "He felt good." > >That _is_ an adverb. > >> "He was good." >> but you can't say (or at least I can't): >> *"He voted good." > >Cos you speak "Good" English. > >> If you can't use the adjective "good" here, you shouldn't >> be able to use other adjectives either. You have to use an adverb form: >"He >> voted well." > >For a lot of us, "good" _is_ and adverb form! > >> Josh Roth > >Padraic. >-- >Bethez gwaz vaz ha leal.
Are you saying it's not an adjective period, or that while it may be for me, it's not for others? If the former, what's your definition of an adverb? Or rather, why is "good" an adverb there? Are you saying it because you believe in any V x situation, x must be an adverb, or in other words, adjectives just can't come after verbs, so if it comes after a verb it must be an adverb? Or some other reason ? In my speech, I can't use "good" where I can use other words I know to be adverbs (e.g. He reads slowly vs. *He reads good) but I can use it where I can use other words I know to be adjectives, unless I've been wrong about their identity this whole time (e.g. He reads a difficult book, He reads a good book). Even with the same example as above: He felt happy. He felt fashionable. He felt good. vs. *He felt happily. *He felt fashionably. ?He felt well. -This is OK for me because of hypercorrection due to prescriptivist teachers (or was it my mother?) who said you need an adverb, not an adjective, after a verb - if not for that, I'm sure it wouldn't be. I'd say, in fact, that "well" in this case (if the sentence is taken to mean "He felt good" rather than "He felt [certain phsyical objects] with exceptional ability") is really an adjective. </ramble> Josh Roth http://members.aol.com/fuscian/eloshtan.html

Replies

John Cowan <cowan@...>
Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
Padraic Brown <agricola@...>