There was a recent editorial, by the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, where Dr. Yoder-Wise scolded all of us who write articles. I suppose she makes a point, and this is formal writing. But I thought you'd get a kick out of it. She also is seeing an emerging problem which is beginning to "creep" into the written word (OH NO!) - the deletion of ly in adverbs. Here is her perspective:

quote:

To further complicate things, adverbs must now be too long to say. Generally an adverb (which modifies a verb) is created by taking an adjective (which modifies a noun) and adding the following complex sequence of letters: ly. Instead of “travel safely” we may say “travel safe.” This seems minor, and we all know what people mean by such words. However, the more accustomed we become to hearing misused words, the more “normal” they sound. And thus they also begin to creep into the written word.

Have you seen this? I can't say that I have, but maybe I haven't noticed.

You mean "Tom Swifties" will be extinctly?

I try not to listen to or read what anybody has to say about language. So few of them know what they are talking about that it is easiest to ignore them all as so much noise.

Adjectives, adverbs, and derivational morphology is all way more complicated than this person seems to think it is. Of course, what she knows is correct and everybody else is in error.

There are a bunch of adverbs that do not end in -ly: e.g., fast which is both an adjective and an adverb.

Adverbs that don't end in -ly (flat adverbs) are actually less common now than they used to be.

… commanding him incontinent to avoid out of his realm and to make no war - Lord Berners, translation of Froissart’s Chronicles, 1523
… I was horrid angry, and would not go - Samuel Pepys, diary, 29 May 1667
… the weather was so violent hot - Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 119
… the five ladies were monstrous fine - Jonathan Swift, Journal to Stella, 6 Feb. 1712
… I will not be extreme bitter - William Wycherly, The Country Wife, 1675

Although it might be true that more recently, flat adverbs are becoming more common again. But there are some adverbs that have always been flat, like slow, fast, and quick.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,

I've often wondered if certain usages creep in (& out, & back in again) based on immigration patterns over the decades. My 1st-gen Italian relatives gravitated toward using an adjective rather than adj+ly for an adverb, which I thought might relate to a number of Italian words which serve both purposes (molto comes to mind). They also found their way around pesky Germanic prepositional expressions (e.g. 'turn off' the lights, tv, etc was 'shut' the lights), also fairly common among ESL Spanish-speakers.

I agree, z, that it's so annoying when people (even editors) feel that they have the correct answer...and everyone else is wrong.