[lbo-talk] Marx and Engels On Literature and Art

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
Wed Apr 23 18:07:37 PDT 2014


On Apr 23, 2014, at 8:27 PM, Eubulides <autoplexus at icloud.com> wrote:


>
> On Apr 23, 2014, at 12:15 PM, Charles Brown <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Your post is the one that is stupid and insulting and just plain shut
>> the fuck up
>
> ========
>
> Reflexivity alert.
>
> Wow, two in one day. History has clearly taken a turn for the worse.

But I like the use of the phrase 'shut the fuck up' as an adjective. English really is a wonderful language.

Another wonderful phenomenon, recent or at least recently swum into my ken: The 'because' clause that consists of a single, usually plural noun. E.g., 'Obama wanted to attack Syria, because Democrats'.

The OED likes to celebrate the 'word of the year' but the language is evolving so fast there ought to be a prize for 'syntactical construction of the year', though that is admittedly a clumsy phrase. 'Top Syntagm?'



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