Adverbs vs. Adjectives

[talasiga]

Whether emmline demonstrates well or badly, bloomfield will go to her willingly.

Emmline is willing to demonstrate and bloomfield has badly expressed his willingness to go to her.

[Wombat]

I'd feel for you if I could. As it is, you'd better ask Bloomfield to feel for you. I'm feeling crappily.

[Nanohedron]

Why don't you Henry Higginses explain "I am feeling well," while you're at it.

Sure. I'm guessing it falls under "idiomatic parlance".

But good point. When you think about it, "I feel/am feeling good" is not incorrect in the slightest, so there's an irony in that many of us are admonished that "well" should be used, "good" being held as substandard usage and somehow lowbrow. But pursuing that example, no one I know says, "I feel greatly/finely/cheatedly/hungrily/happily/(otherly)." You come across "poorly" or "sadly" and some others, but I think many regard those usages as purely idiomatic.

But to get back to "I'm feeling well" as compared to "I'm feeling good", I get a nuance of meaning from either one, "well" implying a general state of health, whereas "good" is more immediate and possibly sensual. Anyone else get this, too?

[djm]

I feel good.
I knew that I would, now.
I feel good.
I knew that I would, now
So good, so good,
I got you, yeah.

- James Brown

djm

[carrie]

Why don't you Henry Higginses explain "I am feeling well," while you're at it.

But to get back to "I'm feeling well" as compared to "I'm feeling good", I get a nuance of meaning from either one, "well" implying a general state of health, whereas "good" is more immediate and possibly sensual. Anyone else get this, too?

I think it's more than just a nuance. One very standard definition of well is healthy, as adjectival as can be.

C'mon Bloomfield--can't you give us something harder than that? At least some ablatives or something? The question having been answered, the throngs beg for more.

[djm]

Someone is begging for thongs?

djm

[Denny]

optimist

[talasiga]

GOOD as adjective, noun and adverb

I am not a good boy.
Robin Hood fought for the good.
She kissed good.

[s1m0n]

"I feel like crap" is an expression, not a grammatically-constructed sentence.

Like any expression, if you know only the words and the grammar, you won't understand. This is the position many english and a second language learners are in: they can parse the grammar perfectly and look up every word individually, and they're still in the dark about what it might mean.

So, as an expression, you can't expect to shift the syntax and retain the meaning, the way you can with non-expressions. This is because it's meaning was ungramatical in the first place.

Native speakers who already inderstand the expression will likely get it if you use either of your choices, but that's only because they're recognising the earlier form as an expression; not because of your syntax.

Lots of fun wordplay has a similar foundation. Back in university, my geek friends used to say "For this job I have to look really generate" The last word isn't the verb 'to generate', its a coined word back-formed from the adjective "degenerate", and pronounced like it, with a short A vowell sound in the last syllable.

~~

However, this is also a common way new english words are created. The verb "to burgle" or "burgled" is back-formed from the word "burglar", on the misunderstand that this was a verb, not a noun, as in "burgler".

The ~ar ending is noun declension from the time when english nouns still declined. It's not a verb, or a noun created from a verb.

[Nanohedron]

"I feel like crap" is an expression, not a grammatically-constructed sentence.

That doesn't make sense (there's an idiom for you) to me. Now "crap" of course is street English, if you will, but the sentence's logic follows from start to finish so far as I can see, forming a simile: subject does or is like object. Unless I'm missing something, that's basic English grammar. "Crap" is a bad thing. To say one feels like it IS an expression, yes, but also grammatically constructed per the rules of simile, right? Same thing with "a face like a bag of spanners".

Now, "I feel like a beer" is an idiom, not a simile. But it's one that can be made to recall simile with the burlesque reply: "I wish you were!"

[djm]

While refamiliarizing myself with the history of crap (chaff), crapper (var. of cropper), Thomas Crapper (plumber), and feeling flush in general, I came upon these two most excellent words: dysphemism and cacophemism. Dictionaries are just so neat-o.

djm

[fyffer]

... I came upon these two most excellent words: dysphemism and cacophemism...

Which brings to mind a musical invention I'm just dying to find somewhere.
We all know of the Euphonium. Isn't one of our esteemed Chiffers a Euphonist?

euphony
1591 (as euphonia), from Gk. euphonia, from euphonos "well-sounding," from eu- "good" + phone "sound, voice," related to phanai "speak" (see fame). Hence, euphonium (1865), the musical instrument.

What I really want to see is what a Cacophonium looks like ....


P.S. Talk about your thread creep -- and to hijack my own thread, no less ..
P.P.S. Obviously feeling much less crappierly.

[djm]

I have sometimes heard of these sorts of set-ups referred to as a cacophonium:



djm

[Wombat]

"I feel like crap" is an expression, not a grammatically-constructed sentence.

That doesn't make sense (there's an idiom for you) to me. Now "crap" of course is street English, if you will, but the sentence's logic follows from start to finish so far as I can see, forming a simile: subject does or is like object. Unless I'm missing something, that's basic English grammar. "Crap" is a bad thing. To say one feels like it IS an expression, yes, but also grammatically constructed per the rules of simile, right? Same thing with "a face like a bag of spanners".

Now, "I feel like a beer" is an idiom, not a simile. But it's one that can be made to recall simile with the burlesque reply: "I wish you were!"

I'd be very surprised if a competent syntax for English didn't deliver all the sentences in this group as grammatical. In the dated lingo of the transformational grammarians, 'I feel like a beer' looks like it's derived by an optional deletion transformation from 'I feel like having a beer'.

And now back to our sentence:

Carnivore: I feel like a rare rump steak.
Herbivore: Not for me boys, I'll have a nice fruit salad
Coprophiliac: Suit yourselves. I feel like crap.

[cowtime]

I have sometimes heard of these sorts of set-ups referred to as a cacophonium:



djm

That's exactly what I need for our community orchestra's Christmas concert. Too many little do-dads to try to keep up with.