That Ted Cruz’s remark was an intentional nonparallel construction, I have no doubt. I just wish he had said, “the son of a bartender and the son of a mailman and the son of a dishwasher and the son of a . . . (pregnant pause while audience fills in the blank) . . . real estate developer.”

Thanks for posting the example Nick; it’s a good one.

Richard

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nick Carbone
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2016 7:45 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Example of intentional nonparallel construction

If Frank Cioffi were doing another edition of his fun _One Day in the Life of the English Language_ (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10443.html), I can picture him doing something with this bit from last night's debate. I didn't see the debate, but Frank Bruni in today's NYTimes online draws attention to Ted Cruz deliberately altering a parrallel construction:

<quote>
And then there was Cruz’s finale, when he nodded to the paternity of, in order, Rubio, Kasich, himself and Trump. “What an incredible nation we have,” he said, “that the son of a bartender and the son of a mailman and the son of a dishwasher and a successful businessman can all stand on this stage, competing and asking for your support.”

“Businessman” didn’t fit. It wasn’t meant to. That was his point . . .

</quote from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/11/opinion/five-big-questions-after-a-shockingly-civil-debate.html>

Anyway, if you're spending any time addressing rhetorical decision making in sentence level choices, you might find the example useful.

nick.carbone at gmail dot com
http://ncarbone.blogspot.com

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/