Ah, but "persist" is a verb... just not a transitive one!

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 11:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Our changing language.


X-no-Archive:yes
One of the peculiarities of American English (or whatever one chooses to
call the collection of dialects spoken in the United States), is the ability
to shift the function of a part of speech. All dialects can use certain
nouns as adjectives - system manual, chemistry book, physics exam, albeit
with some properties so fascinating to linguists that Noam Chomsky attempted
to discuss them in his lectures on Governance and Binding. American English
will use nouns as verbs, and verbs as nouns (besides gerunds, participles as
nouns, as in I enjoy running, I have an eating disorder, parenting isn't for
cowards), or even as adjectives, seeing eye dog, running shoes. British
English used to do this, and this can be seen in Shakespeare, but has long
since stopped.

Unfortunately, this shifting can get so terribly muddled, that we see
strange, jargonesque constructs like 'persist an object to disk' (and other
things almost as ugly as my own tortured syntax). Once upon a time, someone
described microwave (adj) radiation, short wavelengths of light, and they
came to be called microwaves (n). Someone discovered that they could excite
water, and be used to cook, and developed the microwave (adj) oven. This
came to be called a microwave (n). Now, you can microwave (v) Cheese-Whiz in
under a minute. Fortunately, at some point, saner minds may prevail, and we
design systems instead of architect them, and nuke frozen burritos instead
of microwaving them.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com
don't tell Coke that I'm trying to cut down on tonic.
I'm sure they were about to ask to see my resume.