Use some parts of speech tagger to speed up the process.

Adjectives are just a sales pitch.

Adjectives are important. If someone tells you, "run! There's a bear coming!", then you might want to know if it was a grizzly bear or a teddy bear.

Exactly. I was thinking along the same lines. If somebody says uh-oh so-and-so has a knife. I want to know, butter or carving?

why would they tell you to 'run' from a teddy bear

It's like history. Some adjectives aren't useful.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2021 05:21AM by Soft Machine.

Nicely done, Tom!

Although in my version, I said it...

As a writing major, this stance on adjectives causes me physical pain. Adjectives are needed to paint a picture of what's happening/happened (I studied creative writing) and to make the distinction between two similar nouns obvious. What kind of pliers do you need, which size do you want, which wire do you need to cut and which will set the device off . . .

I’d say that it’s the nouns that are the real trouble makers.

Verb you, elderolddog.

Yikes!!! Hey, no need to resort to that kind of language! I'm sending in my Exmormon.org donation right now!


Whoa! Check out the donation page:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EZ77z8BtDTjE1OxJJ9-J_qt8DYGTbidBeE77d6cu02jneoA-mWgfS0fkuGdpu6HvSTafLW&country.x=US&locale.x=US

I can't get it to work, either as a PayPal or credit card donation... Wazzup wid dat?

You'd better hope that no one ever robs you, because the police will be asking for a whole lot of adjectives to describe that person.

English is a rich, beautiful language with an extensive vocabulary. No reason to reduce it.

Ok if we do not remove all the adjectives. Let us instead sit down and decide a resonable set of adjectives that correspond to reality. So we all can agree about many more things and create heaven on earth?

;)

Yes. And then afterwords we can all go herd some cats.


Of course those mischievous, wile , arrogant, unruly, tricky, and clever cats are a rough crowd to round up.

Saves electrons

Perhaps I'm too strict, but I'll go as far as saying that most adjectives are disrespectful to the reader.

Here's an example where, strictly speaking, adjectives aren't used, but value assessments are emitted

"...the horrors of war..."

I would understand if this were a work of literature, but its usage in non-fiction is just jarring to my ears. My inner reaction is "you report the _facts_ of the war to me, and then I decide if the war is horrific or not"

If you're criticizing abuse of adjectives, then use a related example.


That said, permit me to inquire: what consequences of war that would be described as horrors should somehow not befit such a value judgment? Loss of lives; breaking of human bodies; unspeakable pain; ruin of families, towns, communities, the environment; loss of normalcy and peace for generations. I may be wrong, but if consequences of war are described as horrors, it's because they are.

Tyson

“Terrifying”
“Horrendous”
“Stunning”
“Incredible”
“Reckless”
“Amazing”
“Jolted”

Some attention-getting adjectives found in headlines designed to attract clicks.

They use words to elicit emotional response for profit.

And most people fall for it.

It is a circular cause and effect.

Some find it annoying.

Humans/lemmings.

Closely related.

Let's look at your post Cauda.

> A way to truth, remove the adjectives in texts you read
> Use some parts of speech tagger to speed up the process.
> Adjectives are just a sales pitch.

Let's start with the difference between words defined as adjectives and words used adjectivally. In your writing, you use "parts of speech" and "sales" as descriptive modifiers of "tagger" and "pitch", rendering their use adjectival. So they'll have to go.

Similarly, "some" is a quantitative adjective modifying "tagger".

Moreover, articles are a special kind of adjective.


This drops your comment down to:

> way to truth, remove adjectives in texts you read
> Use tagger to speed up process.
> Adjectives are just pitch.

It can be understood, but I'm not sure that it's all that meaningful.


Incidentally, I was being nice. Any modifier of a functional noun is in fact adjectival. So I probably should have suggested removing "to truth" and "in texts you read" as modifying "way" and "adjectives" also, thus:

> way, remove adjectives
> Use tagger to speed up process.
> Adjectives are just pitch.


It's almost but not quite a haiku. I can get it the rest of the way, though:

Remove adjectives.
Use tagger to speed process.
Adjectives just pitch.


Tyson, taking advantage of pitch being available as a verb or a noun



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2021 02:11PM by Tyson Dunn.

Ka-CHING! A humble hats off to you.


D&D, An Adjective Addict.

Cauda Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Use some parts of speech tagger to speed up the
> process.
>
> Adjectives are just a sales pitch.

Never use "just" in a sentence to diminish the importance or difficulty of an activity.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233318

I entered a story in a contest where I had to limit the length.
I deleted the adverbs.
Then, I deleted the adjectives.
I liked it.

This is a point I've thought of making a few times. Smoked out, I am.

Are adjectives and adverbs bad? No. But they are used too much, and that often weakens speech.

Example 1: "Your story is compelling" versus "your story is very compelling."

Which of those sentences is stronger? The use of "very" weakens "compelling" since it sounds defensive, as if the speaker is not confident in his judgment.

Example 2: "'Darn him,' she said angrily" versus "'Darn him," she fumed." More often than not there is a verb that conveys the nuance at least as well as the adverb.

It's always good to take a piece of writing that you think is finished and then go back and look critically at the adjectives and adverbs. Many of them aren't necessary and in fact detract from the message.

Good point, Kathleen.

Reminds me of this joke

In English class the assignment is to write a short story. The teacher explains that the story must contain four elements: royalty, profanity, mystery, and sex. Johnny sits there for a few minutes and then quickly writes something down and hands it in. The teacher looks at the paper which contains only the following:

"Damn it!" said the duchess. "Pregnant again. I wonder who it is this time?"

Do not know grammar so well. Bit off actually. My IQ is a bit lower now. Got some Zoplikon. Feels great. Had a breakdown a coule of weeks ago.