Why I Need to Further Pursue My Studies
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Today, I went to Whole Foods and got sushi for lunch. I hadn’t really had it before, but I was sure I would like it. The reason I got sushi is that it (I hear tell) goes with seaweed salad, which I love with the whole of my palate.
At Whole Foods they package their seaweed salad and sushi in little plastic containers. The bottom part of the container has a design on it that tips its hat to Japanese art. So, I’m eating my lunch: yum, yum, yum. And I start thinking about the containers’ design. I think about calling the design Japanese-inspired. Pretty much as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I thought, “Wait!" In the adjective construction _______-inspired can the “blank” word be an adjective or does it have to be a noun?” So, I’m enjoying my seaweed and searching my brain for other, non-nationality based examples that might use an adjective. I don’t think of any. So, now I’m thinking that the right way to go about describing this container’s design is “Japan-inspired,” but the design was not inspired by the country itself, the land within the borders (as I’m supposing), but rather the people of Japan. So, in the end my “Japanese” was a noun all along.
As an aside, I do think that the “blank” word has to be a noun because I don’t see how a non-thing/idea/place could inspire someone. I thought maybe a verb could do, but really one would be inspired by the noun form of the verb. That is, you wouldn’t have a pair of shorts that are run-inspired in design but rather running-inspired. (Now the grammar check has planted a seed of doubt in my mind because run-inspired is not underlined and running-inspired is.)
So my point is this: I have to think that I am alone in the dealership on this. If I were to go to one of my coworkers, pose this line of thought, and ask for commentary and (hopefully) counterexamples, I have to think that I would win the weird award.
Normally, I would talk to Dre about this stuff, but I know I can find other strange, over-aware-of-grammar types in academia.
P.S. There is a guy at work named Ryan and we have these very similar pink button-up shirts. We always seem to wear them on the same day (today included) and it bothers him. Maybe he feels too girly. Not only is the shirt pink, the international color for, “It’s a Girl!” but a girl is wearing one right down the hall. This guy sure has it rough.
Today, I went to Whole Foods and got sushi for lunch. I hadn’t really had it before, but I was sure I would like it. The reason I got sushi is that it (I hear tell) goes with seaweed salad, which I love with the whole of my palate.
At Whole Foods they package their seaweed salad and sushi in little plastic containers. The bottom part of the container has a design on it that tips its hat to Japanese art. So, I’m eating my lunch: yum, yum, yum. And I start thinking about the containers’ design. I think about calling the design Japanese-inspired. Pretty much as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I thought, “Wait!" In the adjective construction _______-inspired can the “blank” word be an adjective or does it have to be a noun?” So, I’m enjoying my seaweed and searching my brain for other, non-nationality based examples that might use an adjective. I don’t think of any. So, now I’m thinking that the right way to go about describing this container’s design is “Japan-inspired,” but the design was not inspired by the country itself, the land within the borders (as I’m supposing), but rather the people of Japan. So, in the end my “Japanese” was a noun all along.
As an aside, I do think that the “blank” word has to be a noun because I don’t see how a non-thing/idea/place could inspire someone. I thought maybe a verb could do, but really one would be inspired by the noun form of the verb. That is, you wouldn’t have a pair of shorts that are run-inspired in design but rather running-inspired. (Now the grammar check has planted a seed of doubt in my mind because run-inspired is not underlined and running-inspired is.)
So my point is this: I have to think that I am alone in the dealership on this. If I were to go to one of my coworkers, pose this line of thought, and ask for commentary and (hopefully) counterexamples, I have to think that I would win the weird award.
Normally, I would talk to Dre about this stuff, but I know I can find other strange, over-aware-of-grammar types in academia.
P.S. There is a guy at work named Ryan and we have these very similar pink button-up shirts. We always seem to wear them on the same day (today included) and it bothers him. Maybe he feels too girly. Not only is the shirt pink, the international color for, “It’s a Girl!” but a girl is wearing one right down the hall. This guy sure has it rough.
posted by Ashleigh @ 4:56 PM
1 Comments:
At 6:01 PM,
Dre said…
Ash- I miss you... In fact, there is a rather large void in my midst... As far as noun-inspired vs. verb-inspired, I'm not sure that your run-inspired/running-inspired example is a good example. Aren't running and run both nouns, but one form is used more frequently than the other? Perhaps trucker-inspired vs. trucking-inspired is a better one. (I'm thinking those ridiculous hats...) However, I think that it may just depend on the context, because it seems that a roadtrip could be trucking-inspired, a car could be truck-inspired, and an article of clothing could be trucker-inspired. I think it just has to match up with what you're comparing it to...
Lots of love,
Dre
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