grammar R'Us'ns

[Michael Riebs / Audi V8]

Awesome English lesson this morning. I do love reading the lists! I can
always learn something. Even in the cases like this one, where the quantity
of Audi content is "minimal" at best (I'm not sure I saw any - except the
reference to the color Pearl in the SIG line).

Now, as much as I enjoyed the lengthy explanation, could it have been
simplified by explaining it like this: `` "think different" should be
understood: "think: "different"", as a command of what thought you should
have at any given time, rather than an explanation of "how to think", which
then, as correctly observed would be "think differently" ´´?

There, I think I got all the quote marks in all the correct places. I
wouldn´t want to fall victim to the scrutinizing eyes of the grammar police
on the Audi lists...   ;-)

Michael L. Riebs
Grand Rapids, Michigan

'90 V8Q
'98 A6QA

www.1stchoicegranite.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fisher, Scott" <Scott_Fisher at intuit.com>
To: <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 7:44 PM
Subject: Re: grammar R'Us'ns


> Tom Nas writes:
>
> > Speaking of which: I often wonder about the correctness of
> > Apple Computer's 'Think different'. In UK English it should
> > be 'Think differently', if I'm not mistaken. Is this correct
> > US English?
>
> It's an obscure but legitimate use -- using the adjective (standing in for
a
> noun, as an appositive) instead of an adverb with the verb "think"
suggests
> not HOW you think, but WHAT you think (or what you think *about*).   The
> same structure can be better exemplified by substituting a noun for the
> adjective; it's impossible to decline a noun into an adverb, so the
> confusion can't be present.
>
> Think VW ads, for example. About 40 years ago, VW ran a famous ad campaign
> with the headline, "Think small," over a photo of the original Beetle.
This
> was a play on the well-known (and perfectly correct) English saying,
"think
> big."  If you were to translate this saying to its equivalent form using
an
> adverb, you'd end up with something like "think largely," which does not
> mean anything remotely the same as "think big." (In fact, "think largely"
> may well be one of those grammatically correct but lexically impossible
> phrases, like "green ideas sleep furiously").
>
> A more poetic citation of the same structure is found in the line from
Dylan
> Thomas:
>
> Do not go gentle into that dark night:
> Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
>
> It is often misquoted as "go gently."  The difference is subtle; in "go
> gently," the adverb modifies the verb -- describes how the poet's dying
> father would go.  In the correct version, "gentle" implicitly modifies the
> person, rather than the action the person is taking.
>
> "Think differently" is another one of those lexically improbable
phrases --
> how can we think differently, by using our feet?  (Well, I know that men
> have sometimes been accused of not thinking with their heads.)  But by
> saying "think different" -- in the context of "think big," for example --
> the use of the adjective (which modifies nouns) implies that the THINGS
one
> thinks are different, and implies it in a way that is concise, to the
point,
> and, well, different.
>
> So there.  Knew that English degree would come in handy one day... :-)
>
> --Scott "Would you like Perl with that?" Fisher
>   Tualatin, Oregon
>
>