AboutAndrew Russell Expertise You can try me on any point of grammar and structure, or on vocabulary. English comes alive most in its usage, and I am very experienced with questions of that kind. One of the pleasures of teaching second-language English is when a student raises a point that I have never had to think about before. I work in British English, but have enough knowledge of American and other variations to be able to help.
I'm afraid I don't have the time to to any proofreading, so would have to reject requests, and can't help with translations from other languages. Also, having two small children to keep me busy, questions asked at weekends may have to wait until Monday.
Experience I have been teaching English for 20 years, on and off, and now run my own small school attached to a theatre and arts centre in Chelsea, London.
Organizations NATFHE (lecturers' and teachers' union)
Education/Credentials University to BSc (Zoology)
Certificate in TEFL, but mostly educated on the job.
Past/Present Clients Literally hundreds of students over the years, as a teacher, many more as a Director of Studies, School Administrator and Director.
If you wish, you can check out my school at: www.theenglishschool.co.uk
But please don't use this to ask questions - that's what Allexperts is for.
Expert: Andrew Russell Date: 7/16/2008 Subject: lexicology
Question Dear Andrew,
I would appreciate if you could help me with one word, Bushist, as it may be found in the following sentence: Born-again Bush-bashers like Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Sullivan, however churlish, are intellectually and morally superior to the Bushist dead-enders who still insist that Saddam was allied with Al Qaeda I am not sure what part of speech it is. I know that the suffix -ist is used to form agent nouns like columnist, artist. It can be used for coining nouns denoting a supporter of a certain idea, e.g. communist, fascist, etc. But what about Bushist? In this sentence, is it a noun or an adjective? It can be found also in word partnerships like Bushist strategy, Bushist regime etc. What is confusing is the capital letter at its beginning.
Thank you in advance
Sincerely
Pavel
Answer Dear Pavel
What is confusing about the capital letter, is simply that it is derived from a proper noun: the name of 'Bush'.
Similarly, you can be, say a communist or capitalist without needing a capital letter, but you need the capital to be a Leninist or a Keynesian economist.
There are several endings that can be used to denote a follower or supporter of a particular person's views, the most common being: -ist, -ite, -ian. The choice usually depends on which makes the best-sounding word. For instance, I might prefer to coin the term 'Bushite' for the people in your example, since it has a satisfyingly appropriate rude word in it. 'Bushist' sounds too much like 'Buddhist', and they're usually nice people.
Such a word is, as you have guessed, a noun; but remember that English is a 'non-inflected' language - that is, it doesn't have to mark words according to whether they are being used as a noun, verb, adjective, etc. hence, in some of your phrases (such as 'Bushist strategy' - a strategy with the characteristics of Bushism) it is acting as an adjective, while in others (such as 'Bushist Regime - a regime consisting of Bushists) it is part of a compound noun.
If you have trouble separating compound nouns from adjectival noun phrases, don't worry - in almost all cases, the effect is exactly the same, and it's really only an academic matter as to whether they really are one or the other.
