I won’t even encourage the foolish idiocy of a psychologist’s new theory that videogames are physically addictive, like heroin, alcohol, and cigarettes – i.e., quitting them once addicted causes physical withdrawal symptoms that can, in some cases, even lead to death.
No, that guy’s a laughingstock without my help. But I must express my outrage over the rape of the English language we see every day. We all have pet peeves. One of mine is the use of the non-word “addicting” when one means “addictive,” and sites around the internet are now spewing the headline “German Shrink Says Videogames are Physically Addicting.” That’s a gerund. It’s also not a word. Something cannot be a gerund; as a non-finite verb, a gerund describes a state but does not define it. As in, “that psychologist is fucking retarded.” He’s not retarding, people. Grammar. Grammar, god dammit!
Also: conservativism, not “conservatism.” As if Republicans would want to be associated with conservation efforts.
Is “fucking” really a gerund there? That would mean that the psychologist is performing the action of fucking on… “retarded”? Better to exemplify this with something like “Making stupid statements is the psychologist’s forte.” Making is a gerund here “Making stupid statements” is a gerund phrase.
You know, you raise an interesting point there, lokimotive. I think I’m in the clear, since in that context “fucking” modifies “is,” not “retarded.” According to the Progressive Forms section of the article on “to be” at this site: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/to_be.htm
“Fucking” acts as a gerundive present participle… but I’m definitely on grammatically shaky ground, particularly since I argue that the psychologist is not “retarding,” implying that “fucking” was modifying “retarded.”
Not to take the wind out of your fucking sails, but the present participle addicting—as in “This conversation is addicting me to the word fucking.”—has the exact same form as the gerund addicting—as in “Addicting people to the word fucking is really fun! You should try it sometime!”
However, you’re right that the video games are (supposedly) addictive (not addicting). Unless you want to say that video games are addicting kids to themselves. That would be okay. Or you could just elide the final phrase, “kids to themselves,” since that is obviously the sense of the sentence (which is commonly done in colloquial speech). And you would end up with, “Video games are addicting.” Which is where we started.
-TimK
BTW, the link in the post above doesn’t say anything about a psychologist. Are you sure it’s pointing at the correct page?
-TimK
All this grammar discussion aside (and Steerpike is of course right. Games are addictive, not addicting. Even a non-native speaker like me recognises this.), I’d have to say that Demon’s Souls is damn near phsyically addictive. It’s good that the Atlus-powered western release is still some months off as it’ll give me time to actually complete the Asian version and have the review for TR ready for the US launch… The thing is sucking my life and I love it for it!!!
I think you mean it’s SUCKIVE your life, Meho.
I kid, I kid.
You make a point there, TimK, and I must accept that “addicting” is a word. But I don’t like it. I don’t like that word. It sounds… misused. I don’t like it!
Meho, I’m eager to hear more about these Demons and their Souls. As we’ve discussed before, it, along with a couple others (and a price cut) are mounting reason for me to grab a PS3.
Which means I’ll have to move the damn TV table again…
Well, I purchased it so I can play Demon’s Souls, BlazBlue and a couple other games of course, but essentially because my job is going to the shitter and I wonthave the money for a PS3 this time next year. So, better to have a PS3 and no money than no money and no PS3… Also I managed to find the last model with hardware PS2 compatibility in my town so it was a no brainer…
I’ll do a piece on Demon’s Souls as soon as possible. Just finished an exhsausting review od Street Fighter IV/ KoFXII/ BlazBlue that I will be posting ASAP…
Meho, I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about Demon’s Souls. Judging from what I’ve read so far, that game would make me curl up into a ball and cry like the girl that I am. Plus, I’m a combat weenie. But it intrigues me so. It’s almost impossible to resist its siren call.
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I hate to be the one to disagree with all the gentle happiness but in Steerpike’s example, “fucking” describes “retarded”, as only adverbs can describe verbs, and adverbs only end in -ly. Now I suppose someone’s going to demand a citation in which case I’ll say too fucking bad. As in a description of the adjective.
Of course I only use the word metaphorically, because I only curse when I’m astoundingly angry (see adverbs also describe adjectives, which is not remotely contradictory to what I said above) and right now I reserve my anger for the contractor who may or may not be renovating our house.
Now I wanna find Demon Souls. Heck I’ve wasted thousands of hours playing MMORPGs; I might as well play one where I won’t be ganked or ninjaed.
Doh PS 3! Bah Steer deserves all the misery he can feel.
–from one who only recently got a PS2 and still hasn’t killed more than one colossus in Shadow of the Colossus.