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Subject:Re: Grammar: "So" as a modifier? From:Sankara R <ss_rajanala -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 7 Oct 2005 10:31:02 -0700 (PDT)
> "Are so!"
True. It is so, and more commonly: "I think so
[but I am not sure]"
In the old grammar, it was so.
> This is different from the modern slang usage,
> "We are soooo lost,"
> where so is an adverb modifying, in this case,
> the adjective lost.
This was more or less my point: except that
modifier is a category that includes adjectives
as well as adverbs.
> Recall that in schoolbook grammar an adverb can
I am trying to forget it :-)
> "This is so an inconvenience," I think the
> adverb so modifies the
> adjective (article) an.
In more recent grammars (Quirk and Greenbaum)
these are called determiners, and either way -
use of 'such a nuisance' etc are restricted to
the combination such and a [a non-productive
rule, that does not allow similar constructions]
and hence so-an-inconvenience is odd.
However, as more people speak it and gatekeepers
wink [at] it - it will get in the grammar canons
too.
So sad.
Thanks and regards,
Sankara S Rajanala
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