[Ads-l] intrusive "of" intrudes further

[Neal Whitman]

 From "What if Will Smith had played Neo in /The Matrix/?", 
/Entertainment Weekly,/ #1393, Dec. 11, 2015, 6. 41:

In a recent interview with /Wired,/ Smith admitted he would have 
"totally messed up /The Matrix/" had he accepted, saying, "I wasn't 
SMART ENOUGH OF AN ACTOR to let the movie be, whereas Keanu was." 
(emphasis added)

On the one hand, this is an "of" where we haven't seen it before: it's 
not with "too," "how," "as/so," or "this/that" (or even "very," looking 
at my earlier example). You'd just expect prenominal "a smart enough 
actor". On the other hand, we do have the standard "enough OF a [NOUN] 
to [VERB]," which is so very close to what Will Smith said. Maybe we 
have a production error, blending "enough of an actor" with "a smart 
enough actor".

Neal


On 11/5/2015 10:58 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:
> And this morning, from my 15yo son:
>
> "It just wasn't very good of an apple."
>
> Neal
>
> On Nov 5, 2015, at 9:50 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at MST.EDU 
> <mailto:gcohen at MST.EDU>> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header 
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
>> <mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>>
>> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU 
>> <mailto:gcohen at MST.EDU>>
>> Subject:      Re: intrusive "of" intrudes further
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> The "of" in "various of scientists" seems explainable as a blend: 
>> "various =
>> scientists" + "a number of scientists" (and perhaps "a lot of 
>> scientists").
>> Gerald Cohen
>> ________________________________________
>> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM 
>> <mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>],Thursday, November 05, 2015 6:18 =
>> PM, wrote:
>> How about this, attributed to a presidential candidate whose name you 
>> would
>> recognize in a twinkling?
>> "And various of scientists have said, 'well, you know there were alien
>> beings that came down and they have special knowledge and that's 
>> how.' You
>> know, it doesn't require an alien being when God is with you."
>> (I mean, how about the "of"?)
>> JL


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