Stalking the wily usage guide

[vvvexation]

I seem to have developed a considerable amount of skill at finding explanations of really obscure points of grammar by way of Google. (In this case, I knew "whom have I become" sounded wrong in the same way that "whom am I" does, and wouldn't rest till I'd proved they were indeed governed by the same principle.)

This won't fit in the "current music" field, but saizai is currently playing rap songs with opera samples in. Pretty nifty, but it'd be nice if the rap had less goofy lyrics than "power over money, money over power, power over money...beeyatch."

Comments

[saizai.livejournal.com]

That would be Warren G. f/ Sissel - Prince Igor, from The Rhapsody Overture.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

That's very sexy! Thanks for pointing it out, I've always wondered about the exact reason.

I also like the idea of copulative verbs, but that's a different post.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Heh. I wonder what the etymological connection is, if any.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

*smacks self in face* Of course--copula means link.

[capnkjb.livejournal.com]

Someone on Live105 did a mix of a speech Bush gave with techno, and it was quite amusing, especially when they started fiddling with his words to have him sing "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

You wouldn't think Bush could rap, but give someone a decently-encoded sample and anything is possible.

[peaceofpie.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of that, but it's absolutely correct.

*trots off to correct people ;-)*

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

While "who have I become" makes more sense than "whom have I become", I can't say the same about "she became like I" versus "she became like me." So at least colloquially, it appears that "become" is only sometimes a copulative verb, and sometimes it's a regular transitive verb.

[metalfatigue]

In the latter case, "become" is functioning as an intransitive verb; the indirect object is the prepositional phrase "like me."

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Okay. "She became me", then. Surely it's a transitive verb in that case.

[metalfatigue]

That would be an example of the "perceived transitive force" mentioned in the referenced FAQ entry.

No matter how hard prescriptive grammarians try to pretend otherwise—and I do love them for it, Gods bless their hidebound little hearts—English is not Latin.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Well, since the same is true of "be" in that context, there may just be a glitch in the definition of copulative verbs.

[olego.livejournal.com]

Yes!