[Ads-l] Snowclone: Can a (derog) X get a Y?

Joel Berson berson at ATT.NET
Sun Apr 19 17:14:16 UTC 2015


If one happened to read "Jew for Rand" as a verbal imperative, it would have been extremely derogatory ... but whether more to Jews or to Rand is problematical.
(I have no idea whether there has been any public comment about such an interpretation -- and searching the Web seems unprofitable.)

Joel
      From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2015 8:55 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Snowclone: Can a (derog) X get a Y?
   
> 
> This became an issue recently when Rand Paul announced his
> presidential bid -- his website offered supporters various custom
> avatars to use on social media, including one that said "Jew for
> Rand." After some uproar on Twitter, it was revised to read "Jewish
> for Rand."

Note that the (perceived) problem wouldn't have arisen in the plural; "Jews for Rand" wouldn't have raised any (non-ideological) hackles.


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