I’m a linguist working in Canada. I use this blog to write about linguistics and language analysis, focusing on problems with traditional (prescriptive) grammar. I also have a series on the International Phonetic Alphabet. My preference is to write long-form posts that consider an issue in detail. Currently, my schedule allows me to update this blog about once per month. I still regularly update my Twitter @LinguaDiem, where I post about as many languages as I can (now past 600!).
E-mail: linguischtick@gmail.com or lingua.diem@gmail.com
Twitter: @LinguaDiem
(I rarely check my e-mail. It’s better to contact me on Twitter, or reply to a post on WordPress).
I’ve been asked a few times now about the “funny G” in the blog name. It’s a symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabet, and it represents a voiced uvular implosive. There’s no particular reason that I use this symbol, except that I wanted an IPA symbol and I happened to have an image on hand for this one. I’ve grown to like it.
linʛuischtick 
Congratulations!
I have nominated you for the “One Lovely Blog Award”.
(as in, “That’s one lovely blog you’ve got yourself, there, linguischtick!”)
The details are on my blog, here:
http://wrightonthebutton.com/2012/10/17/one-lovely-blog-award/
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Hello! I just stumbled across your blog, and like it!
I am working on a grammar project for junior-high and high-school students, and would like to get your feedback on a few things.
As I work putting my own grammar project for the lay person “out there”, I am a little terrified of being crucified as some of these other authors have!
I agree that lots of “grammar” books are often way off the mark, but I do think you may be a little too harsh on books written for the general population, which doesn’t have the background knowledge or linguistics vocabulary to work with.
So perhaps a basic lay-person definition of an “adjective” as “a word that describes a noun or pronoun” certainly does not go in depth of the syntactical uses of adjectives, but I would certainly argue that in the sentence “it is yellow”, “yellow” is definitely an adjective and it is definitely describing the pronoun “it”.
Just because the syntax is different, adjectives definitely describe nouns and pronouns. That author simply didn’t go into the details, such as 1) an adjective that describes a pronoun is used with a linking verb as a subject complement:
She is funny. I look good.
And 2), as a direct-object complement:
I ate the pizza, but I ate it cold.
They find him bothersome.
And, while nuanced, it certainly is within the bounds of correct language usage to say “This is the new me!” or “I much prefer the happy-go-lucky you to the serious you.”
ALSO…
An author said, “Notice that the word dawn’s does not really serve a traditional function as a noun. It’s really acting as an adjective. You can see this feature of our language by recognizing that dawn’s is not the object of the preposition by.”
You replied, “This is just so wrong. So what if it isn’t the object of the preposition? That doesn’t mean it can’t also be a noun. Let’s diagram that phrase out.”
I think the author was pretty clear in stating that although “dawn” definitely is noun, its function in the sentence is adjectival (he says “not traditional function as a noun” and “acting as an adjective”).
Your nice diagram proved his point!
I myself have no problem with the expression “noun as adjective”, to describe uses such as “I left found a tin can on my beach towel.”
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Why don’t I proofread before I hit submit???
I meant to say, “as these other authors have BEEN”
“in depth INTO” (into???)
“is A noun”
“I FOUND a…”
on-the-fly writing. ugh!
;-)
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I nominated you for a Blog of the Year Award. :) Details here: http://thebestofalexandra.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/its-a-different-major-award/
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awesome blog!
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Very pleased to have discovered your fascinating blog. Much for me to explore with knitted brow! Regards from Thom at the immortal jukebox.
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Great post! New subscriber here, literally :)
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