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

[Benjamin Barrett]

The responses to this thread were all interesting.

I agree that it's not possible to always distinguish when "Can an X get 
a Y" is meant literally. It seems there is a development from literal to 
rhetorical and then to rhetorical with a derogatory noun.

Today, I spoke with the Jewish friend whose quote started this thread, 
and he told me it comes from "Table Dance" by 2 Live Crew 
(http://bit.ly/1DtG7Cx); he even had the song on his smartphone. For 
whatever reason, I immediately knew his quote came from the N word 
version. "Table Dance" was released in 1996, the same year as the Chris 
Rock skit I cited (http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96e.phtml).

Chris Rock gets a lot of credit for the song "Table Dance." See, for 
example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYJNCNrwi_g, where he is listed 
as the artist, and http://bit.ly/1JDOGOW where he is listed as an artist 
along with Maestro (who also gets a lot of credit for the song), but I 
wasn't able to verify that in a short search.

According to http://bit.ly/1JDPlzX, 2 Live Crew's song "Table Dance" was 
written by David Hobbs, Mark Ross and Chris Wong Won.

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/home
> ADSGarson O'Toole <mailto:adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> April 18, 2015 at 10:29 AM
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header 
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Snowclone: Can a (derog) X get a Y?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I also started to look at "Can a man get a drink around here?" and
> "Where can a man get a drink?" But I could not really see clear
> demarcations between the members in this large class of queries.
>
> Year: 1914
> Title: Life, Letters and Addresses of John Craig Havemeyer
> Author: John Craig Havemeyer
> Publisher: Fleming H. Revell Company, New York
> Quote Page 324
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=uewEAAAAMAAJ&q=%22get+a+drink%22#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Mr. Havemeyer -- If the law prohibits the manufacture and sale of
> intoxicating liquors, where can a man get a drink?
>
> "Mr. Wheeler -- In Maine, the farmer can make and drink cider. Private
> distilleries may be worked and domestic wines may be made.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>

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