{"id":16394,"date":"2014-12-12T12:16:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T17:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=16394"},"modified":"2014-12-12T12:40:10","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T17:40:10","slug":"not-a-verb-is-not-an-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=16394","title":{"rendered":"\"Not a verb\" is not an argument"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, when I checked out the website of The Atlantic, I saw an article by Megan Garber<\/a> with the headline, \"Gifting Is Not a Verb\":<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Megan has written perceptively about language before, notably in her piece from last year, \"English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet<\/a>,\" which played a large role in bringing attention to the emerging use of \"because\"<\/a> — shortly thereafter recognized as the American Dialect Society's 2013 Word of the Year<\/a>. (Some might argue<\/a> that the new \"because\" isn't a preposition; Geoff Pullum defends that classification here<\/a> and here<\/a> but says it actually was one all along.)<\/p>\n

The article itself is a seasonally appropriate exercise in word aversion, and Megan quotes one of Mark Liberman's posts<\/a> on the topic to try to understand the source of her intense dislike of \"gift\" as a verb. But the headline goes much further, declaring that it is not a verb<\/i>, despite the fact that the article clearly demonstrates that it is a verb, even if it's one that many people don't care for.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I griped on Twitter about this, but since I'm well aware that journalists are rarely in charge of their own headlines, I directed my ire at The Atlantic:<\/p>\n

\n

"'Gifting' Is Not a Verb" http:\/\/t.co\/Kpi9ZFUuiH<\/a> Hey @TheAtlantic<\/a>, your headline is patently false, as @megangarber<\/a>'s article demonstrates.<\/p>\n

— Ben Zimmer (@bgzimmer) December 12, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n