OT: Qualifying Absolutes

Renegade 13 · #1 March 30th, 2005, 10:46 PM

Well, with your example "A little bit dead", dead is, as you've said, an absolute. Therefore, adding a qualifyer onto the statement is superfluous, as you pointed out that "A little bit dead" means (essentially) the same as "Dead". In English, the superfluous bits, in this case "A little bit" are usually discarded, therefore if someone said "A little bit dead" that would be improper English.

Oh, and have you noticed (as a native English speaker) that some things just seem grammatically "wrong"?? Usually, if it seems "wrong" (such as in the case of "A little bit dead") there is some incorrect grammar in the statement, paragraph, etc. Some people theorize that this sense of "wrongness" is consistent with the existence of a "language sense" that allows people to learn languages with relative ease.

EDIT: Sorry for all the quotation marks, but it seems they are necessary for the point to be made.

Instar · #2 March 31st, 2005, 12:15 AM

Binary : on/off
That isn't the correct grammar term, but I like binary. Me <3 binary

Suicide Junkie · #3 March 31st, 2005, 01:00 AM

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20020120.html

An objective lesson in the difference between "mostly alive" and "mostly dead"

PS:
<3
To me, that looks more like a butt than a heart

You should use

instead

Instar · #4 March 31st, 2005, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Suicide Junkie said:
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20020120.html

An objective lesson in the difference between "mostly alive" and "mostly dead"

PS:
<3
To me, that looks more like a butt than a heart

You should use

instead

Sure, but then it wouldn't be leet. Or something.

Kamog · #5 March 31st, 2005, 04:19 AM

A little bit dead is when someone, say, got shot and killed but the body is mostly intact.
Someone is more dead if he got blown to pieces.
Totally dead when turned completely to dust or vaporized.

AgentZero · #6 March 31st, 2005, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Kamog said:
A little bit dead is when someone, say, got shot and killed but the body is mostly intact.
Someone is more dead if he got blown to pieces.
Totally dead when turned completely to dust or vaporized.

Dead: adj. Having lost life; no longer alive.

Dead is dead. It is a state of being. Either someone is dead or they are not. Someone who is shot is just as dead as someone who is vaporized. No definition of 'Dead' that I could find made any reference to there being different degrees of dead.
Many thanks to you guys, anyway. I think I can now go back and inform my friend that qualifying absolutes is simply bad English.

AMF · #7 March 31st, 2005, 04:34 PM

Yeah, absolutely bad english. It's fun to do but as strunk and white say:

"Avoid the use of qualifiers. Rather, very, little, pretty—these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. The constant use of the adjective little (except to indicate size) is particularly debilitating; we should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then."