topics in semantics

the government and its agents are interested in some kinds of semi-rigid lexical categories.  i think it is a good strategy to come up with unseemly examples that will coat the academic topic the way burnt oil drips viscously from the wok that you left hanging after seasoning it onto your airtight cat food container that you don't use to store cat food.  you use it to store something else.  like rice.  if i spot a weevil in your hair i know you have a bag of rice in your house, unless you also have an airtight catfood container, lest it get defiled!

Filmore-Kay constructions:

the Xer, the Yer

he Xed his way PP

(two excerpts from popular media)

I get older, they stay the same age.  (Dazed and Confused)

The more I smoke, the more I blow, the more sunshine the more weed that grow. (Coughee Brothaz - The More I Smoke)

google turns up these:

"Walking my way into my wedding dress."

"Can I buy my way into the comic book industry?"

"Texting my way into her heart"

"Drinking my way into two hospitals in ten days."

"Drinking my way into robotics"

"...sleeping my way into some tremendous neck pain."

"...sleeping my way into August."

"...sleeping my way into management."

"...a courtesy call that was less about courtesy and more about flattering my way into a high-level guarantee against the capricious gouge of the kingdom's customs mafia." (Glane, Mullahs, Merchants and Millitants)

Goldberg style constructions

He Xed Obj Adj

"Suck me sideways."  (Dumb and Dumber)

"We're eating ourselves stupid."  (Something my high school friends would say)