Wednesday 22 January 2014

Very, Holmes.

 I mentioned that Holmes and Watson (or Doyle) have some usages which are still criticised as modern abuses or mistakes: "very unique" is one.

I had not noticed native speakers saying "very delicious" until relatively recently - but maybe I just hadn't noticed. On the other hand, I have commented on people saying "absolutely", which used to be one of the few modifiers used with these "ungradables",  with normal gradable adjectives: "That's absolutely important", for example.

But Holmes certainly says "very delighted", which seems similar (in "the Stockbroker's Clerk"). So, I will look out for other "modern horrors" from over a hundred years ago. I might even spot a "Yes, no, absolutely, Holmes!"

4 comments:

  1. That's totes observant, Doctor!

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  2. Btw, have just failed the 'prove you're not a robot' captcha-type test to post my comment. How do I actually know I'm not a robot? Also, if I'm not a robot but can't in fact fathom the somewhat mashed combo of upper/lowercase type, should I be worried that I might be treated as if I were a robot at some point...and what would that entail do you think? Don't imagine you have taken out sufficient public liability insurance to protect your errrm 2? UK subscribers ;-)

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  3. frustrating, isn't it? No, don't know what is going on with blogspot's robot test, I'm afraid. Don't know anything about insurance against being treated as a robot, either. But appreciate your comments.

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  4. And I get some comments but without any further subscribers. I don't know how that works, either.

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