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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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In an interesting, recent New Yorker article, Lawrence Wright writes: Those clues, plus certain particularly Moroccan political concerns expressed in the document, such as the independence movement in Western Sahara, suggested that at least some of the authors were diaspora Moroccans, probably living in Spain. I wonder what everyone else here thinks of this use of "diaspora," which I understand to be a noun, either the scattering of a people ( the diaspora of the Jews) or the collective group of people themselves who were scattered ( his grandfather was a member of the Jewish diaspora). Wright's use of the word as an adjective seems awkward to me at best. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040802fa_fact
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Alex:
i sat and thought about this one for a bit (after reading the fascinating article!) and concluded that the usage was probably OK. I can construe the phrase to mean Moroccans of the diaspora, though you can also just as legitimately conclude that diaspora was used as an adjective, which wouldn't be quite right.
I also thought about other ways to get the point across and couldn't come up with anything that was so much better that I as an editor would use my ble pencil on it.
Nice to see you again!
TEd
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Thanks. Yeah, I agree it isn't horrible, but I wondered if you couldn't use an adjective suffix to create "diasporic," which doesn't go down too well either. I guess it is akin to other uses of nouns as adjectives, such "car guy" or "Bud man."
It is a fascinating, and somewhat frightening, article.
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veteran
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veteran
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Wright's use of the word as an adjective seems awkward to me at best.
Doesn't seem like an adjective to me, just two nouns (in compound) the first modifying the second, like arthritis sufferer, Las Vegas gambler, or soup nazi. It's a pretty common phenomenon. I'd find diasporic or diasporal Moraccans to be less satisfactory than diaspora Moroccans.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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However, jheem, it functions as an adjective here.
Alex, yeah, I had to think about it for a minute, too, but I agree with y'all: it does work better than any stylistic adjectification of the word.
Now I'm off to read the article.
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However, jheem, it functions as an adjective here.
Sorry, AnnaStrophic, but I have to disagree with you here. It's a noun modifying another noun. Consider the following.
1a. the red book
1b. the very red book
1c. the book is red
1d. the book which/that is red
2a, the diaspora Moroccans
2b. *the very diaspora Moroccans
2c. *the Moroccans are disapora
2d. *the Moroccans who are diaspora
Diaspora here does not act as an adjective nor is it an adjective, but it is a noun.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The function of adjectives is to modify nouns. Nouns that modify nouns, in this particular context, are adjectives. Wanna take this outside? 
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The function of adjectives is to modify nouns. Nouns that modify nouns, in this particular context, are adjectives.So a noun is a noun, unless its function changes and then the noun is an adjective. I think I've got that. But the noun in question, diaspora, does not function like other adjectives. So maybe some adjectives are more adjectivy than others. Wanna take this outside? Sure, I'll meet you outside. If I'm not there in a couple of minutes, you can start without me. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Touché, mon buddy.
I forget, how do I shadowbox?
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shadowbox
Another great compound. Is shadow a noun or an adjective? Now where did I put my epee?
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