I have been editing the Fat Camille opus in preparation for an actual hard-copy printing. All day long I have been cleaning things up, correcting spelling and adjusting technical print stuff so it will look good on paper. I just got to this page and I decided to "fix" the so-called technical problems with the Professor's speech. Two people (you know who you are) commented that he (I) got it all wrong. Since I wanted to show that the character was "right" all the time, it was important to the story to get it right. So I just went on-line to clear the mix-up.
I found out some interesting things.
Good generally is an adjective (although, according to notation 49 on that page it can mean "well").
Well generally is an adverb, although it can be correctly used as an adjective as well (ha ha).
Adverbs do actually describe verbs.
Adjectives do generally describe nouns.
Perhaps the dog should have recommended, "I am doing well." But is not "am" a form of the verb "to be?" It seems that "I am good" would be correct also (colloquially, at least).
Case in Point
I understand that things can be technically correct, but still sound bad. Be that as it may, I am a bit peeved-- mostly at myself for taking what those two readers said seriously and spending all this time trying to untangle the mess. It is so funny, this incident illustrates my entire small-brain insecurity.
Corrections
English is a fucking kluge. I started this line of inquiry to actually find something new, to repair a hole in my knowledge, but as it turns out, it was pointless. If there is a hole in my head, I share it with the rest of Le Monde Anglais-phone.
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