The psychologist Steven Pinker was once quoted as saying that the best way to tell if someone was under 30 was if they were comfortable using “fun” as an adjective.
About 15 years later, that still seems on target. The farther away in the rear-view mirror 45 is for you, the odder it seems to hear something like “his party was funner than hers.” And the younger you are, the more it seems perfectly normal.
In my new e-book, You Need to Read This: The Death of the Imperative Mode, the Rise of American Glottal Stop, the Bizarre Popularity of “Amongst,” and Other Cuckoo Things That Have Happened to the English Language, I write about fun-as-adjective and a number of other trends that young people have brought into the language.
Indeed Jane… a worthwhile exercise just for some fun!
I have to say this article was a fun read. Everyone should pull up a chair, turn on their light and see how you rate on the Pinker scale of age-telling communication.