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From: pardoej@lonnds.ml.com (Julian Pardoe LADS LDN X1428)
Subject: Re: "gay" (was: Re: Gay Teenagers)
Message-ID: <D5E7CK.7sq@tigadmin.ml.com>
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Organization: Merrill Lynch Europe
References: <eassong-110395193304@bootstrapmac23.calumet.yorku.ca>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 1995 18:57:55 GMT
Lines: 52

In article 110395193304@bootstrapmac23.calumet.yorku.ca, eassong@yorku.ca (Gord Easson) writes:
>Try to avoid changing your structure when you are comparing usages.  The
>three examples you presented of acceptable nominalization of adjectives had
>definite articles.  The counter examples had indefinite articles.   I agree
>that "I saw a happy." is not proprely constructed, but I have no problem
>with "Blessed are the happy.". Similarly, I would reject "I saw a poor.",
>just as switly as "I saw a happy.".  Bringing this back to the question of
>the nominalization of "gay", is "Blessed are the gay." an acceptable usage?
> (No socio-religious meaning intended.)

Don't know why (and this is very unscientific) but my intuitive feeling
is that in "blessed are the X" X is an adjective, whereas in "I saw an X"
X is definitely a noun and putting X=gay or X=happy fails because these
words aren't nouns (well, X=gay is acceptable because I've heard it so
much my natural resistance has been warn down[*]).

i.e. the pattern isn't

   Blessed are the <X>
   I saw a <X>
   <X> ::= <noun> | <adjective>

but
    Blessed are the <noun>
    Blessed are the <adjective>
    I saw a <noun>

To back this up, I'd note that "happies" is not English whereas "gays" grates on
my ear about as much as "a gay" does.

I suspect that in Britain "gay" tends to be used as a noun only by people who
are ignorant of gay people or positively homophobic -- and usually about to make
some gross and inaccurate generalization.  I wonder if it grates on my ears for
this reason.  The same used to be the case with people who
pronounced "homosexual" with a short first "o" but I'm less sensitive to that
now.


-- jP --   


[*] Likewise "It is I" or "He is taller than I" don't grate too much; they are
not right but I've heard them so many times than they are just about acceptable.
(If you think "It is I" is correct colloquial English, what about "It's I" or "If
you hear a noise in the night, don't worry -- it'll be we" or "That'll be they now"?
My ears will not accept these -- but "'Tis I" is OK !?

I can't think of such good examples for "than I" but my ear tells me that there are
two acceptable forms:
   ...taller than me
   ...taller than I am)

