Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Question for any amateur philologists out there....

["Jonathan King" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On 9/5/06, Christian M. Cepel <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> I found this site and am very excited: http://bookbox.com/index.php
>
> Except I have one hesitation in that their tagline is "Helping children
> read smarter".
>
> I don't believe "smarter" may be used as an adverb.

Tell that to the people who made "Work smarter, not harder" a cliche.
We also have "Eat smarter" on tap.  It's clear that "smartly" won't
work, since that means something else, and other synonymous
possibilities have issues (e.g., "read more intelligently").

"Read smarter" hasn't got that much momentum behind it yet, but it's
pretty clear to me that what does and does now count as an adverb
these days is definitely in flux. "Hard" did not used to be an adverb,
either, but it became one when "hardly" started to drift in its
meaning.  I am not in love with the expression, but it's not a case
where it's easy to point at the obvious "right" answer.

> I've also always wondered about Apple's tagline "Think Different".  It
> irks me as it seems in my mind that it's incorrect and should be "Think
> Differently".  Any ideas on this?

Ad copy is meant to attract attention.  Also, this is I think a pretty
deep pun. But if it really bothers you, note that they've stopped that
ad campaign.

jking

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion