"Nice and" expression question.

Geoff Bannister gbannister10 at tiscali.co.uk
Sat Jan 3 23:10:06 UTC 2009


--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
Carol: 

> By, the way, the "and" isn't stated if "nice" comes before the noun:
> it's "a nice, supple wand"; "a nice, hot drink"; "a nice, easy
> crossword puzzle"; etc. So the wand is "nice" (a good wand) *because*
> it's supple, and so forth.

Geoff:
It isn't stated because the "nice and x" structure doesn't necessarily 
carry the same meaning and hence correspond exactly to "nice, x".

For example, to say 'the next move is to insert the power unit nice and 
gently" isn't the same as "the insertion of the power unit is a nice, gentle 
move."

We've already suggested that the "nice and x" format is an idiomatic 
construct which can be difficult to render in translation.





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