"Don't Say Gay" (role of blending)

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

We deal here with a syntactic blend, a very frequent feature of everyday speech:

"That includes (being able to run my home)..."  +" Within that is (the right to run my home)..."

Gerald Cohen


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Benjamin Barrett
Sent: Thu 2/16/2012 10:41 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


> On Feb 16, 2012, at 8:15 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
>> That's the name of the Tennessee bill that prohibits the discussion of
>> any gay issues in schools prior to 9th grade. But this is not why I am
>> forwarding this. John DeBerry (D-Memphis) made an argument in support of
>> the proposition:
>>
>>> The basic right as an American is my right to life, my right to
>>> liberty and my right to the pursuit of happiness. Within that includes
>>> being able to run my home, raise my children as I see fit and to
>>> indoctrinate them as I see fit.
>>
>> What got my attention was the beginning of the second sentence, "within
>> that includes..." that treats "within that" as a subject.
>>
>>    VS-)
><snip>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org