(just) as much ... as ... Prescriptive or Descriptive?

[M56]

In which situation would you, personally, use number one over number two?

1. This is as much unnecessary as it is undesirable.

2. This is as unnecessary as it is undesirable.

[Mister Micawber]

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Personally, I would not touch #1 with a ten-foot parser. Isn't 'unnecessary' non-gradable (lexically speaking, that is)?

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[M56]

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Personally, I would not touch #1 with a ten-foot parser. Isn't 'unnecessary' non-gradable (lexically speaking, that is)?

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I see.

<Isn't 'unnecessary' non-gradable (lexically speaking, that is)? >

It may be, but pragmatically...

Do you ever use "it is extremely unnecessary"?

[M56]

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Personally, I would not touch #1 with a ten-foot parser. Isn't 'unnecessary' non-gradable (lexically speaking, that is)?

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How about:


TOTALLY UNNECESSARY

PROBABLY UNNECESSARY

COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY

ONLY UNNECESSARY

OFTEN UNNECESSARY

ALSO UNNECESSARY

WHOLLY UNNECESSARY

SO UNNECESSARY

BOTH UNNECESSARY

ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY

EVEN UNNECESSARY

HOW UNNECESSARY

AS UNNECESSARY

A BIT UNNECESSARY

LARGELY UNNECESSARY

Etc.

And:

How Necessary is Oxygen?

How necessary is it for me to "bubble" my Earth Juice?

[Steven D]

How about:


TOTALLY UNNECESSARY

PROBABLY UNNECESSARY

COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY

ONLY UNNECESSARY

OFTEN UNNECESSARY

ALSO UNNECESSARY

WHOLLY UNNECESSARY

SO UNNECESSARY

BOTH UNNECESSARY

ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY

EVEN UNNECESSARY

HOW UNNECESSARY

AS UNNECESSARY

A BIT UNNECESSARY

LARGELY UNNECESSARY

Etc.

And:

How Necessary is Oxygen?

How necessary is it for me to "bubble" my Earth Juice?

Of course. - nothing wrong with those.

That was absolutely unnecessary.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...unnecessary%22+

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...2+&btnG=Search

[M56]

Thanks for the links, xmode. What do you think of this?

In which situation would you, personally, use number one over number two?

1. This is as much unnecessary as it is undesirable.

2. This is as unnecessary as it is undesirable.

[Steven D]

Thanks for the links, xmode. What do you think of this?

In which situation would you, personally, use number one over number two?

1. This is as much unnecessary as it is undesirable.

2. This is as unnecessary as it is undesirable.

To me, number 1 is for emphasis. You have stronger feelings about something with that statement. Number 1 could be heard as having more emotion attached to it. That's the way it seems to go often. Choices are often made based on emphasis and relative degrees of formality and informality. There are other things I guess, but those seem to come up quite often.

The speaker may or may not be aware that he or she is making these choices. It depends.

[Casiopea]

I agree with X Mode: the phrase "(just) as much" is fronted for emphasis:

This is unnecessary (just) as much as it is undesirable.
This is (just) as much unnecessary as it is undesirable.

The fronted example is based on analogy, or rather follows another pattern in the grammar:

This is just as red as that is red.
This is red just as that is red.

[Steven D]

If we are talking about gradable and ungradable adjectives, I think this is something to consider.


: HCD, it's easier to learn English by being exposed to large amounts of it than to learn it from grammar books that assign words to categories that have names. I grew up speaking English. I went to school in the US. I had never heard of "gradable" and "nongradable" before.

: It seems that a gradable adjective is one that refers to some quality that there can be more or less of. "Pretty"--one painting can be prettier than another. You shouldn't have to memorize lists of adjectives. What matters is the meaning of the word. Just translate the English adjective into your own language and decide whether it means something that can be quantified.



http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_b...ages/1036.html

[Steven D]

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Personally, I would not touch #1 with a ten-foot parser. Isn't 'unnecessary' non-gradable (lexically speaking, that is)?

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1. This is as much unnecessary as it is undesirable.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Do you think someone would sound stupid if they said it?