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An Inquiry into Modifier Noun Proliferation
For your reading pleasure, I present this classic from 1970. A good laugh as an antidote to the gloom and doom, and a clarion call against the increase of Obfuscese into the political and economic lexiconHave you noticed the new look in the English language: Everybody's using nouns as adjectives. Or to put that in the current argot, there's a modifier noun proliferation. More exactly, since the matter is getting out of hand, a modifier noun proliferation increase. In fact, every time I open a magazine these days or listen to the radio, I am struck by the modifier noun proliferation increase phenomenon. So, I decided to write--you guessed it--a modifier noun proliferation increase phenomenon article. Frankly, I'm worried. Of course, phrases like "deer crossing" and "state university" have always been around where the first noun helps pin down what particular sort of thing that second noun might be. And very helpful and necessary those concrete phrases are. But I think we're on to something new and not too desirable when "students" become, for no good reason I can see, "student population" and "training" degenerates into "training program," and "investment" is "investment spending," and everything from highways to computers is being labeled "highway systems" and "computer systems" (which naturally means "computer systems analysts" and "highways systems engineers" and so on). What's happening is that nouns are being strung end to end in mindless litanies and the beauty that was Samuel Johnson and the brevity that was Oscar Wilde have gone down the drain. My theory is that sweet simplicity is what good prose is all about. I guess by now you know this is modifier noun proliferation increase phenomenon article protest. and there's more. Enjoy! Posted by: mom 2011-01-12 |
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