Blast past fast

[GoesStation]

I don't want to analyze/parse a company's advertising slogan, but I'm inclined to think the "fast" might be an adverb.

GS's interpretation:
blast (verb) past (preposition) fast (noun)

No. My interpretation is the correct one. This may be something that only a native speaker or extremely fluent second-language speaker can appreciate.

The sloganeer could have made it clear by using quotation marks, but that would have spoiled the punchy effect of the slogan.

[jutfrank]

GoesStation's interpretation is the right one. This phone is more than just fast. It beats all its fast competitors. It pushes the limits of what we have come to expect from fast. It goes beyond fast.

[emsr2d2]

If it helps, consider a series of iPhones, starting with the iPhone 7 and ending with the one before the latest release. With each new release, the processing speed has improved.

iPhone 7 (quite fast)
iPhone 8 (reasonably fast)
iPhone 10 (pretty fast)
iPhone 11 (fast)

Now imagine they are all racing cars, ready to race. They are all in a row at the start line. A few seconds before the race starts, the iPhone 12 turns up, looks sideways at the others and gives a confident smile.

The starting pistol goes off and they all pull away from the start line. For a couple of seconds, they're fairly even but, all of a sudden, the iPhone 12 just accelerates, overtakes all the others and disappears into the distance at an incredible speed. That overtaking could be described as "blasting past". And what did it blast past? All the other iPhones, all of which have been described as "fast".

[tzfujimino]

I didn't mean that GS was wrong. That was just my poor attempt at analyzing the phrase. I've learned that specific usage of "fast". Thank you.

[GoesStation]

I didn't mean that GS was wrong. That was just my poor attempt at analyzing the phrase. I've learned that specific usage of "fast". Thank you.

It isn't a specific usage of "fast". It's a generic way to refer to a word as a thing rather than using it in its usual way. The absence of quotation marks makes this confusing.

[emsr2d2]

The lack of quotation marks does make it ambiguous but I don't think the actual meaning needs the punctuation.

[tzfujimino]

The lack of quotation marks does make it ambiguous but I don't think the actual meaning needs the punctuation.

That's because you're a native speaker.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Is fast an adjective or adverb there?
or is it a noun?

It's clever. It can be read two ways, as either a noun or an adverb.

As an adverb, it means quickly: Blast past quickly.

As a noun, the phrase means that you can go faster than fast. You can blast past it to something even faster.

[Charlie Bernstein]

That's because you're a native speaker.

No, it's because it doesn't need the punctuation.

[tzfujimino]

No, it's because it doesn't need the punctuation.

Well, if one of my students had asked me about the phrase, I would have explained to them how I interpreted it. I would also have started a thread here and asked for your help.

I, a non-native speaker of English, need the quotation marks to interpret the "fast" as a noun.