Writers at the Washington Post, including Hank Stuever, have taken South Carolina governor Mark Sanford to task for his use of language in yesterday's HIGHLY ENTERTAINING and totally wacko press conference. They wrote: "Note all the passive constructions, the avoidance of first person." Actually, this is wildly inaccurate on both counts, writes Mark Liberman: "I count 180 tensed verbs, of which I can find only four instances of grammatical passive voice." Oh it goes on! I would get all up in this but I didn't go to no college and I'm not very good on parts of speech.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
6
Of course the verbs were tensed - it was a very emotional moment.
I was particularly aroused by his use of the Royal Wee-Wee.
I like the way his participle dangles, I'll tell you that much.
So...passive is different than using a form of "to be"?
I don't know if it's passive or not but it did take the gov a while to mention his "friend's" gender.
Yeah, I think the Repubs are secretly thrilled his affairs weren't happening in an airport bathroom stall and that he doesn't have 'The Gay.'