What is 'purdy'?

[MikeNewYork]

Usage rules. Out of mere curiosity, how does the 'more perfect' preamble run?

FRC

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

[Susie Smith]

Usage rules. Out of mere curiosity, how does the 'more perfect' preamble run?

FRC

PREAMBLE

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

:D

[Susie Smith]

Usage rules. Out of mere curiosity, how does the 'more perfect' preamble run?

FRC

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It seems you beat me to it. Beautiful, isn't it!!!!!
:D

[Susie Smith]

• Non-gradable adjectives express qualities that cannot be intensified by using degree adverbs such as ‘very’, e.g. *‘very male’.
  
  Notes The qualities expressed by non-gradable adjectives tend to be absolute, and they often fall into pairs, e.g. ‘male/female’, ‘married/single’, ‘black/white’, ‘true/false’. When such adjectives are modified by degree adverbs like ‘very’, the effect is sometimes to give emphasis rather than to express the degree of the characteristic expressed, e.g. ‘That’s very true’, ‘It was a very black day’. Alternatively, the nature of the adjective is changed: compare ‘I’m Scottish’ (= nationality) with ‘I’m very Scottish’ (= I have many Scottish characteristics).

FRC, I would like to ask you a question from a point of ESL learner. How can you distinguish from gradable to ungradable/non-gradable ajectives? For me, 'fascinating' is a hard one for me to categorize this as non-gradable adjective. There are some adjectives that I can think of now, would you please check if it is correct.


non-gradable: perfect/ fabulous/ fantastic/ awesome/ wonderful/ perfect


Can you provide some nore commonly used adjectives if there is any? Thank you.

Sources from here

absolute terms Absolute terms are words that supposedly cannot be compared, as by more and most, or used with an intensive modifier, such as very or so. The terms identified in many handbooks as absolute include absolute itself and others such as chief, complete, perfect, prime and unique. Language comentators also like to list terms from mathematics as absolutes: circular, equal, parallel, perpendicular, and so on.
Of course, many adjectives cannot normally be compared or intensified. Adjectives from technical fields or with very narrow meanings often fall in this group. Think of biological, catabolic, macroeconomic, millenial,on-line, retroactive, ultraviolet. You just do not encounter statements like These cells are more somatic or Our database is so on-line. But you do come across remarks such as He wanted to make his record collection more complete and You can improve the sketch by making the lines more perpendicular.People object to these constructions because they seem to violate the categories of logic. Something is either complete or it isn't. Lines are either perpendicular or they aren't. There can be no in-between. The mistake here is to confuse pure logic or a mathematical ideal with the working approximations that distinguish the ordinary use of language. Certainly, we all have occasion to use words according to strict logic. But we also think in terms of a scale or spectrum, rather than in distinct, either/or categories. Thus, we may think of a statement as either true or false according to rigorous tests of logic, but we all know that there are degrees of truthfulness and falsehood. Similarly, there may be degrees of completeness to a record collection, and some lines may be more perpendicular - that is, they may more nearly approximate mathematical perpendicularity - than other lines: Is that picture frame more horizontal now, or have I made it even less? She has some of the most unique credentials I have ever seen on a resume. Such examples are not less logical than their stricter counterparts. They simply represent a different way of using language to discuss a subject.
Certain absolute terms, such as parallel, perfect, and unique, have become enshrined in the lore of writing handbooks and may provoke a negative response when modified by degree. These words are treated in more detail at their entries under Word Choice. (from The American Heritage Book of English Usage)

[Casiopea]

Cas, what do you mean by "But...people use it"? Is this the case that I just mentioned in my previous post, to give emphasis rather than to express the degree of the characteristic expressed.

Sure. Why not? If people are using "very fascinating", then we know very is being used in a new way, one that's non-gradable. :D That, however, is not to say that very fascinating is or will be acceptable by all people. Well, not yet. :(

[blacknomi]

Dear Susan,

That really helps!!! I understand now. Thanks a bunch.
I love you. :D :D :D

[blacknomi]

Cas, what do you mean by "But...people use it"? Is this the case that I just mentioned in my previous post, to give emphasis rather than to express the degree of the characteristic expressed.

Sure. Why not? If people are using "very fascinating", then we know very is being used in a new way, one that's non-gradable. :D That, however, is not to say that very fascinating is or will be acceptable by all people. Well, not yet. :(

Thanks, Dear pretty Cas. :D

[MikeNewYork]

Usage rules. Out of mere curiosity, how does the 'more perfect' preamble run?

FRC

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It seems you beat me to it. Beautiful, isn't it!!!!!
:D

It is beautiful. Politicians don't write that well these days. :wink:

[MrRightMan]

I don't think you can say 'very fascinating' (not gradable). Sorry to nitpick

FRC

Old thread but I couldn´t resist. New words and meanings are invented the whole time to languages. That´s how they evolve. This got me thinking because I do hear gradable fascinating a lot. Like that´s not so fascinating at all. Which to me makes perfect sense and feels good. Maybe because it has been accepted in general. You can lock yourself up with and stop evolving or go with the flow. That´s up to you. But by locking yourself like this stops the evolutionary process of linguistics. Not that you´re gonna read this old message :)