Good Copula / Bad Copula

From the comments on a news report about, well, it pretty much doesn’t matter what it’s about because it’s election season on the internet and any mention of candidate x in any context that involves a comment box means that it’s now about commenter y’s feelings about candidate x, but, yes, I digress.  Let me start over.

From a comment on an election-related news report:

The only real change Obama supports is his mind on everything…first he was for higher taxes, then he wasn’t….

The thrust is clear: “Obama changes his mind.”  The execution, though, is like something out of The Simpsons: a formulation so awkward that it’s comical.  The difference being that Groening’s writing staff is doing it on purpose.

5 thoughts on “Good Copula / Bad Copula

  1. Heh. I like the “of” variant, yeah. It’s still tremendously awkward, but feels more knowingly so—someone wending their way stubbornly down a path rather than, say, stumbling and rolling down a hill.

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