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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Faldage Offline OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place."

Recast the above without adjectives.

Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs."

I always wonder what these folks are thinking about (if at all) when they come up with such feckless drivel. What's next? Prepositions and conjunctions? This reminds me of Alfred Korzybski and his cult of General Semantics. He wanted to get rid of the copula, or at least two of them (i.e., the is of identity and the is of predication). Adjectives and nouns are like the other bits of language. Why on earth would they have developed in the first place if there wasn't a need for them? (Avoid the passive? Why not avoid verbs while you're at it?) If a friend and I are standing in a room and we're discussing a book and there's only one of them in that room, we can get away with talking about the book, but if there are a couple of books, then we need to talk about this or that book pointing at one of them, or the red book or the book on the table nearest you or any other combination of the noun book qualified by adjectives, prepositional phrases, deictic pronouns, etc. Even in those relatively rare cases where another noun exists for an adjective plus noun collocation, one or the other may be preferable in that connotations are different: there may be a slight difference between puppy and young dog. Poppycock and piffle.

[Addendum: But, of course, Professor Pullum says it more eloquently than I (link).]


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
Joined: Aug 2002
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Z
Zed Offline
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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It is not drivel, merely a guideline misinterpreted as a sacred law. "The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place." is true. It also uses three well placed and helpful adjectives.
I have been served pie ruined by so much cinnamon that I couldn't taste the ice cream let alone the apples, yet without any cinnamon it would be bland beyond enjoyment.
When used as seasonings adjectives and adverbs add variety and interest but they irritate when overused and should never be used to cover up a main ingredient that was rancid in the first place.


Moderated by  Jackie 

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