Verbs = what things DO, not what they're named.Languages have too many nouns, too few verbs. So why do style guides say cut back on adverbs?
ET is, of course, a god, but...
a god, it would seem, unfamiliar with the fabulous verbs of Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Turkish, Russian and Hungarian. (I don't suggest that this is a comprehensive list.) ET! ET! ET! What words have passed the barrier of your, erm, fingers?
Also, I take exception to the claim that a language can have too many nouns. Czech, I think (but memory may deceive) has a word for the space under a bed. This is a Rachel Whiteread of a noun; we could, in fact, do with more.
Bizarrely, I have been blocked from his Twitter account. WHAT THE HELL? I barely even tweet. I need to invent a new noun for the place in the universe into which one is hurled after learning that one has been blocked by Edward Tufte. Christ. What could I have done?????
ReplyDeleteNow I will probably find I have joined you there.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's POSSIBLE that someone hacked into your Twitter account and used it to troll Edward Tufte, but it seems wildly improbable.
Mind you, Twitter has a way of making one say What have I DONE? A perfectly innocuous retweet goes out in the world, and the number of followers promptly goes down. Why? Are these people who turn to Twitter for flame wars? Who rashly followed @helendewitt only to discover how drearily blameless it is? No doubt people grow disenchanted with a blog, too, but the blogger is not alerted to deserters every time s/he ventures on a post.
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