Re: ``How retarded of a people ...''

From: Peter T. Daniels (grammatim_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 10/16/04 

Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2004 12:15:29 GMT

Ron Hardin wrote:
>
> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> >
> > Ron Hardin wrote:
> > >
> > > Off a website :
> > > As Churchill said, "How retarded of a people do they think we are?"
> > >
> > > Why the ``of''?
> >
> > > On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.
> >
> > Churchill probably didn't say that, but the "of" is not at all rare in
> > this context.
>
> Of course. That's why I brought it up. I don't know what force is putting
> it there.

> On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

"Force"?

You might should look at the book by Rudi Keller on Language Change
(Routledge, ca. 1990). He invokes Adam Smith's "invisible hand" as the
driving force, and it seems right up your twisted Empsonian alley. 

-- 
Peter T. Daniels                       grammatim@att.net

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Syllepsis exemption
    ... >> Peter T. Daniels wrote: ... But ''lede'' winds up meaning the opening lines owing to cases where you'd start ... Ron Hardin ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: apostrophe with compound name?
    ... >> Peter T. Daniels wrote: ... nobody knows you're a jerk. ... Ron Hardin ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Syllepsis exemption
    ... >> Peter T. Daniels wrote: ... >> where ``burying the lead'' would not be. ... Ron Hardin ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: cleft / pseudo-cleft or what?
    ... >> Peter T. Daniels wrote: ... >> Its inelegance consists of what? ... Ron Hardin ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Long vs. short vowels in English
    ... > Peter T. Daniels writes: ... >> In case you've forgotten, because you have snipped the entire context, ... > I recall what I originally wrote, and I was talking only about the final ...
    (sci.lang)
Loading