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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   2617 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 15, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Yes, the use of exhorting here is grammatically correct. Exhort is a verb that means to strongly encourage or urge someone to do something1. Exhorting is the present participle form of exhort, which can be used as an adjective or a gerund2. In this sentence, exhorting is used as an adjective to modify the noun virtues. The sentence could be rewritten as “I just overheard a random person who was strongly encouraging the virtues of ChatGPT and strongly recommending they sign up to the family of one of the patients admitted in my oncology ward of an upscale yet reasonably accessible hospital while walking around today.”

Source: I asked an AGI. And it makes perfect sense to me.

Not sure if kidding, but that makes no sense at all? Using exhorting as an adjective is not typical usage anywhere that I can think of, and "the virtues" are not really a thing you can exhort.

You've been hallucinated on -- at a broader scale too I'd suggest. What use is ChatGPT to a cancer patient?

Using "exhorting" as an adjective is not typical usage anywhere that I can think of

No, that part is perfectly fine.

  • Good: "I overheard Akpu exhorting Babulal to use ChatGPT"

  • Good: "I heard Akpu extolling the virtues of ChatGPT to Babulal"

  • Bad: "I heard Akpu exhorting the virtues of ChatGPT to Babulal"

It's being used as a verb in your first example; Babulal is the object. "The virtues of ChatGPT" do not make sense as an object for that verb, as you point out.

It's being used as a verb in your first example

A participle is a verb and an adjective simultaneously.

It can be, but that's not what it's doing here. Per your article:

  1. Participles are used to form periphrastic verb tenses:

The present participle forms the progressive aspect with the auxiliary verb be:

Jim was sleeping.

Akpu (was) exhorting Babulal -- subject, verb, object.

That's a different construction with a different meaning.

  • "I saw Akpu exhorting Babulal": "exhorting" is unambiguously an adjective(+verb).

  • "I saw [that] Akpu was exhorting Babulal": I'm not a linguist, but I would still call "exhorting" an adjective+verb here (acting alongside the verb "was"), even though it also can be considered part of the "was exhorting" verb construction. But that may be breaking things down too far.

"I saw Akpu exhorting Babulal": "exhorting" is unambiguously an adjective(+verb).

What verb is it modifying?

Adjectives modify nouns. Adverbs modify verbs and adjectives.

Here, "exhorting" modifies "Akpu".

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