Comments: PERSNICKETY EDITORS.

Piffle! Anonymous seems to have heard you and changed the name of his blog to Stylin' and Smilin'. English has been using nomina adjectiva as substantiva since before it was a written language. Anon. is the veriest fool alive!

Posted by jim at August 27, 2003 06:49 PM

Great heavens, so he has!
*feels the power*

Posted by language hat at August 27, 2003 07:17 PM

If male cannot be used as an adjective, then we could not correctly say "I have six cats--two males and four females." We would have to say "I have six cats--two male cats and four female cats." Where do people get these ideas about language anyway?

Posted by Jonathan Mayhew at August 28, 2003 12:07 PM

I presume you mean "as a noun", not "as an adjective", but in any case...not quite. For instance, try using "stupid" and "clever" in place of "male" and "female" in your example. You'll see that you can use the construction just fine with adjectives.

What he's railing against is using it as an honest-to-God noun, not a substantive adjective. You typically cannot use an adjective as a substantive in cases where you can (in some circles :-) use the word "male". For instance, you can say, "He is such a male," whereas you cannot say, "He is such a blind." Personally, this is a feature I wish we had in English, but we don't seem to yet.

By the way, Steve, I quoted your apostrophe post in a conversation on a forum at my old high school (all us IMSAns still keep in pretty good touch), and your "horrors unleashed upon an already suffering world" comment was very well appreciated. :-)

Posted by Chris at August 28, 2003 07:49 PM

I'm delighted to hear it!

Posted by language hat at August 28, 2003 10:36 PM

Today's first para. contained the question "how do you offend the fewest number of people?"

I sniff. I roll my eyes. I wrinkle my nose. The copy-editor in me goes in search of her battered Chicago 14 (the 15 is crisp, new, and shiny, and not to be used as a bludgeon) and thwaks Damnit repeatedly.

What is the smallest number of times I should thwak, think you all?

Posted by jennie at September 20, 2003 07:25 PM

Ah, jennie, you're a woman after my own heart. Thwak until Damnit cries, "Hold, enough!"—and if you ever decide to move to NYC, let me know and I'll give you a good reference for a copy-editing job. (I still haven't gotten my Chicago 15, but I'm circling it avidly...)

Posted by language hat at September 20, 2003 09:57 PM