"I understand your confusion, as in my native language (Latvian) ... English, however, it *is* a noun a proper one." "Curious. In Spanish, "nombres propios" (proper nouns) are those of persons, animals and countries, as "John, Javier, Fido, España, Inglaterra", ... or region or area...

Thus spake Eric Walker: (Snip lines and lines and lines...) "Try to find "more unique" in the prose of craftsmanlike writers." I'll take that bet. "More unique": Why have I alluded to this man (Thackeray)? I have alluded to him, Reader, because I think I see in him an intellect...

"Thus spake Eric Walker: (Snip lines and lines and lines...)" "Try to find "more unique" in the prose of craftsmanlike writers." "I'll take that bet. "More unique": Why have I alluded to this man (Thackeray)? I have alluded to him, Reader, ... his contemporaries have yet recognised...

"Thus spake Eric Walker: I don't see a problem with ... is all. You dislike "more unique", too, I take it." "This is a paradox, of course. Technically speaking, Eric is correct that adjectives like "pregnant", "dead", "perfect", and "unique" logically...

"Then there are the limiting adjectives: something cannot be thater or more that ; nor can it ... it be theer or more the . (Apparent exceptions will turn out, with parsing, to not be.)" I think that there are true exceptions, as "more that than this" or "more this than that". How...

"Javi" (Email Removed) wrote on 23 Nov 2003: "This is a paradox, of course. Technically speaking, Eric is correct that adjectives like "pregnant", "dead", "perfect", and "unique" logically cannot be graded." "Natural languages are not logic. Of the words...

"Evan Kirshenbaum filted:" "For what it's worth, the DRAE calls it a noun. ... they make mistakes, get corrected, and often overgeneralize the corrections." "Agreed.. By the way, I mentioned the "rr" thing earlier today to someone here at work who was born and ... to overhear the conversation...

Javi filted: "By the way, I mentioned the "rr" thing earlier today ... or at least that it *was* in the early 1970s..r" "I think that those Mexicans were mistaking "letter" with "phoneme". As has being said in other messages, "rr" has never ... those who say that...

"Evan Kirshenbaum filted: Agreed.. By the way, I mentioned the ... or at least that it *was* in the early 1970s..r" "I think that those Mexicans were mistaking "letter" with "phoneme". As has being said in other messages, "rr" has never ... those who say that they think...

"I think that those Mexicans were mistaking "letter" with "phoneme". ... that they think that "rr" is a phoneme in Spanish." "I agree with you, and have throughout this thread, but it just occurred to me that if asked to spell his name, wouldn't someone called Curro...