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it sounds nicely

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GG

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May 30, 2011, 7:37:42 AM5/30/11
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"The music is fine now; it sounds nicely."

Is "it sounds nicely" still used? It can be found at Google Books, but
mainly in older (1880) references.

Thanks.

Don Phillipson

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May 30, 2011, 7:52:09 AM5/30/11
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"GG" <no_...@videotron.ca> wrote in message
news:irvvic$86n$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

> "The music is fine now; it sounds nicely."
>
> Is "it sounds nicely" still used? It can be found at Google Books, but
> mainly in older (1880) references.

In this sentence, fine is an adjective and nicely is an
adverb. The second is wrong in this sentence, i.e.
ought to be an adjective.

Our instincts would probably inhibit our saying:
"The music is finely now, it sounds nice." This
intuition, however, merely confirms the error of syntax.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)


Doug

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May 30, 2011, 8:18:15 AM5/30/11
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I've never heard it. I'd write "The music is fine now, it sounds nice."
Don't ask me why or even if it is correct. The sentence still feels odd
to me. I think I'd go with "The music is fine now" or "The music sounds
nice now."

Context helps a lot when it comes to what you can and can't do. You are
going to write in a different style in a historical novel than you would
in an essay or when reporting speech.

Horace LaBadie

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May 30, 2011, 10:02:27 AM5/30/11
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In article <irvvic$86n$1...@speranza.aioe.org>, GG <no_...@videotron.ca>
wrote:

If sounds nicely means that it plays nicely.

Don Phillipson

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May 30, 2011, 12:23:33 PM5/30/11
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"Horace LaBadie" <hwlab...@nospam.highstream.net> wrote in message
news:hwlabadiejr-F590...@news.isp.giganews.com...

>> "The music is fine now; it sounds nicely."

> It sounds nicely means that it plays nicely.

This usage should be reserved to people who
enjoy the soup that eats like a meal.

Horace LaBadie

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May 30, 2011, 1:05:21 PM5/30/11
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In article <is0gkd$n1m$2...@speranza.aioe.org>,
"Don Phillipson" <e9...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote:

> "Horace LaBadie" <hwlab...@nospam.highstream.net> wrote in message
> news:hwlabadiejr-F590...@news.isp.giganews.com...
>
> >> "The music is fine now; it sounds nicely."
>
> > It sounds nicely means that it plays nicely.
>
> This usage should be reserved to people who
> enjoy the soup that eats like a meal.

A trumpet can sound. Why not the music itself? And if it can sound, why
not loudly, sharply, brazenly, nicely?

Dave Baker

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May 30, 2011, 1:10:27 PM5/30/11
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On May 30, 6:05 pm, Horace LaBadie <hwlabadi...@nospam.highstream.net>
wrote:
> In article <is0gkd$n1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
>  "Don Phillipson" <e...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote:
>
> > "Horace LaBadie" <hwlabadi...@nospam.highstream.net> wrote in message

> >news:hwlabadiejr-F590...@news.isp.giganews.com...
>
> > >> "The music is fine now; it sounds nicely."
>
> > > It sounds nicely means that it plays nicely.
>
> > This usage should be reserved to people who
> > enjoy the soup that eats like a meal.
>
> A trumpet can sound. Why not the music itself? And if it can sound, why
> not loudly, sharply, brazenly, nicely?

I agree, and although it is not a phrase I would *ever* have thought
of using myself, now that I look at it, it sounds very nicely.

Timbo Thompkins

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May 30, 2011, 1:32:13 PM5/30/11
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Yes. It still means "resounds" nicely.

R H Draney

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May 30, 2011, 3:33:04 PM5/30/11
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Don Phillipson filted:

>
>"Horace LaBadie" <hwlab...@nospam.highstream.net> wrote in message
>news:hwlabadiejr-F590...@news.isp.giganews.com...
>
>>> "The music is fine now; it sounds nicely."
>
>> It sounds nicely means that it plays nicely.
>
>This usage should be reserved to people who
>enjoy the soup that eats like a meal.

Do you eat your soup mealy?...r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

GG

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May 30, 2011, 4:50:50 PM5/30/11
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Dave Baker wrote:

My thoughts too ...

Thanks, everybody.

Mike Lyle

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May 30, 2011, 5:46:26 PM5/30/11
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On Mon, 30 May 2011 10:10:27 -0700 (PDT), Dave Baker
<dave...@gmx.com> wrote:

>On May 30, 6:05 pm, Horace LaBadie <hwlabadi...@nospam.highstream.net>
>wrote:
>> In article <is0gkd$n1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
>>  "Don Phillipson" <e...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote:
>>
>> > "Horace LaBadie" <hwlabadi...@nospam.highstream.net> wrote in message
>> >news:hwlabadiejr-F590...@news.isp.giganews.com...
>>
>> > >> "The music is fine now; it sounds nicely."
>>
>> > > It sounds nicely means that it plays nicely.

Only in specialised contexts; and not, I think, usually with the
meaning "It sounds good."


>>
>> > This usage should be reserved to people who
>> > enjoy the soup that eats like a meal.
>>
>> A trumpet can sound. Why not the music itself? And if it can sound, why
>> not loudly, sharply, brazenly, nicely?
>
>I agree, and although it is not a phrase I would *ever* have thought
>of using myself, now that I look at it, it sounds very nicely.

Tastes well, does it? Smells pleasantly? Feels correctly? Nah, those
are wrongly. Verbs of sensing take adjective complements in
constructions like these, not adverbs.

--
Mike.

Stephen

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May 30, 2011, 8:49:51 PM5/30/11
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No, that will never do, for me. It sounds nice.


--
Stephen
Ballina, NSW

Stephen

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May 30, 2011, 8:50:38 PM5/30/11
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It could sound out nicely.

--
Stephen
Ballina, NSW

Frank S

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May 30, 2011, 10:08:40 PM5/30/11
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"Stephen" <cald...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:RWWEp.5416$CS3....@viwinnwfe01.internal.bigpond.com...

Yes, the sound is pleasing to me, as well. It does sound nice. And the
trumpet sounds nicely, doing a good job making the sound.


--
Frank ess

Robert Bannister

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May 30, 2011, 10:38:30 PM5/30/11
to

To me, this adverbial use is so strange, I start looking for the older
meaning of "nicely" - precisely, exactly, accurately - and it still
doesn't fit well.

--
Robert Bannister

CDB

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May 30, 2011, 11:18:54 PM5/30/11
to
R H Draney wrote:
> Don Phillipson filted:
>> "Horace LaBadie" <hwlab...@nospam.highstream.net> wrote:
>>
>>>> "The music is fine now; it sounds nicely."
>>
>>> It sounds nicely means that it plays nicely.
>>
>> This usage should be reserved to people who
>> enjoy the soup that eats like a meal.
>
> Do you eat your soup mealy?...r
>>
I eat mine slurpmeal. I suppose you could eat carefully-edited
alphalpha soup, like, a-meal.


Peter Moylan

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May 31, 2011, 6:36:27 AM5/31/11
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"This trumpet sounds nicely" says, in effect, that the person who made
the trumpet did a good job.

"The trumpet sounds nice" is a comment on how the music affects me, the
listener. And of course it depends on more than the skill of the
instrument-maker. The talent of the player is just as important. By
contrast, the player has little or no influence on whether the trumpet
sounds nicely.

Those are two different meanings of the verb "sounds".

Similarly:
"You smell nice" means "I like your aroma".
"You smell nicely" means "I like the way you use your nose".

--
Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org
For an e-mail address, see my web page.

GG

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May 31, 2011, 7:28:19 AM5/31/11
to

Very interesting.

Thanks, everybody.

Roland Hutchinson

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May 31, 2011, 1:22:55 PM5/31/11
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"Sounds nicely" means something like "sounds with a gentle impact" (cf.
"sounds brazenly" ~= "sounds with great clarity and force"): it does not
means "is perceived as pleasing to listen to", which is "sounds nice".

--
Roland Hutchinson

He calls himself "the Garden State's leading violist da gamba,"
... comparable to being ruler of an exceptionally small duchy.
--Newark (NJ) Star Ledger ( http://tinyurl.com/RolandIsNJ )

Eric Walker

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Jun 2, 2011, 5:25:25 AM6/2/11
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That is because in older use, the concept of the copulative verb was much
less understood. Ben Jonson, who was proud of his grammar, has a
character say "Look superciliously when I present you."


--
Cordially,
Eric Walker

CDB

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Jun 2, 2011, 10:13:32 AM6/2/11
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Eric Walker wrote:
> GG wrote:
>
>> "The music is fine now; it sounds nicely."
>>
>> Is "it sounds nicely" still used? It can be found at Google Books,
>> but mainly in older (1880) references.
>
> That is because in older use, the concept of the copulative verb
> was much less understood. Ben Jonson, who was proud of his
> grammar, has a character say "Look superciliously when I present
> you."
>>
I don't disagree with your point, but I think that example can be read
to mean "gaze in a supercilious manner". Gooboo has the line as
"while I present you", which may make the second interpretation a
little more likely: you look at someone while you are being introduced
to him
>>
I've been thinking about how slippery the difference is between active
and passive in English: I suppose that ambiguity is another case of
it.


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