On Friday, September 23, 2016 at 6:17:50 PM UTC-4, Jeßus wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Sep 2016 15:07:57 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton
> > wrote:
>
> >On Friday, September 23, 2016 at 6:01:54 PM UTC-4, Jeßus wrote:
> >> On Fri, 23 Sep 2016 14:48:08 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton
> >> > wrote:
> >>
> >> >On Friday, September 23, 2016 at 4:18:01 PM UTC-4, Jeßus wrote:
> >> >> On Fri, 23 Sep 2016 11:15:28 -0400, Brooklyn1
> >> >> > wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> >Nayla THE UNEDUCATED Azzahra wrote:
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>Does this sound familiar? You WANT to eat healthy.
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> >You want to eat HEALTHFULLY!
> >> >> >Eating "healthy" means eating huge portions.
> >> >>
> >> >> Only in America.
> >> >
> >> >Perhaps he's alluding to the expression "a healthy appetite".
> >> >However, what that means is not eating like a glutton, but
> >> >having the appetite of a healthy person, as opposed to the
> >> >weak appetite of a sick person.
> >> >
> >> >The dictionary informs me that--informally--"healthy" can
> >> >denote "considerable in size or amount", such as "a healthy
> >> >glug of vodka in a pitcher of orange juice".
> >>
> >> Yes, it gets used that way here as well.
> >>
> >> > It's odd
> >> >that Sheldon would suddenly use the informal definition,
> >> >when throughout this thread he's been a stickler for what
> >> >he believes to be correct usage.
> >>
> >> The only group of people I have ever heard say 'healthfully' or
> >> healthful has been Americans and possibly Canadians. That was the
> >> reason I took issue with Sheldon's comment, just trying to point out
> >> that it isn't universal like he seems to imply.
> >
> >Nor is it actually very common in American usage. People say "healthy".
> >I'm healthy. Broccoli is healthy. Only an idiot would be unable to
> >grasp from context that I enjoy good health and the broccoli fosters
> >good health. Oh, perhaps someone whose first language is not English,
> >but the language is full of those sorts of pitfalls.
>
> Indeed. I would hate to have to learn English as a second language.
> It must be one of the most difficult languages to learn in terms of
> inconsistencies and apparent contradictions.

On the other hand, it's actually a comparatively easy language to
learn enough to get by. I think its inconsistencies and contradictions
give native speakers the intuition to parse badly mangled English.

Cindy Hamilton