To Be or Naughty Be

Gabriel, one of our erudite readers, recently asked us what we thought of the passive voice and the copula. (See his letter on Ask Figaro.) 

copula (COP-you-la), the “to be” verb. From the Latin, meaning “link.” A verb that connects a subject to a predicate; e.g., “Barbara is a woman.” While “to be” comprises most copulae in English, other verbs can perform the same function. “Barbara seems tired” uses “seems” as a copula, for example.

Generally, active works better than passive, in style as in sex. “The Patriots beat the Jets” beats “The Jets were beaten by the Patriots.” And, in general, the verb “to be” sounds wimpy and passive, even when you use it actively.

Wallace Stevens deploys “is” brilliantly in his poem “The Emperor of Ice-Cream”:  “The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.” Stevens’ “is” forms a shaky, ephemeral, about-to-melt copula, linking the seeming emperor to a real one.  A perfect illustration of the copulatory dilemma.  “Let be be the finale of seem,” Stevens writes. But the God-like command (“Let it be!”), combined with the copulatory “to be,” becomes not a command but a passive wish.

Confused? Okay, just stick to this:  When in doubt, use the active voice. If you find yourself resorting to the word “by” in a sentence (“The boat was rocked by the waves”), think what’s causing the action and rewrite your sentence (“The waves rocked the boat”). When you find yourself using “is” or “are” in a sentence (“That wave is a real boat-rocker!”), see if you can dig up a more active-sounding verb (“We’re gonna die!”)

Note: linguists may cavil about Figaro’s definition, noting that “to be” does not always constitute a copula. So please avoid copulating around linguists.

In Denver?

Join us at the Tattered Cover for a Word Heroic talk tomorrow--Wednesday, November 9 at 7:30 pm. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll turn phrases and practice witcraft. For more information, go to http://www.denver.org/eventS/detail?e=3970&t=poetry_literature.

Socialist Whores, Unite!

While the right portrays liberal darling Elizabeth Warren as a rock-throwing Fembot, Warren manages to show grace under fire. In her latest viral video she responded to a Tea Party supporter who calls her a “socialist whore.” Afterward, she came up with a neat alliteration full of sound symbolism (not to mention Harvard-style paternalism).

There’s someone else pre-packaging that poison—and that’s what makes me angry.

Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren

Alliteration (uh-lit-er-AY-shun), the Peter Piper figure. It repeats the first letter or sound from consecutive words. Also,

Sound Symbolism (SOWND sim-bol-ism), the use of sounds to portray meaning and emotion.

Alliteration works best when the repeated sound enforces a meaning or adds color to a scene. In this case, Warren channels a spitting right-wing snake with rapid-fire “p’s” pre-packaged poison. The sound implies a spitting evil.

We also love the  implication of “pre-packaged,” as if some dark industrial force had created a genetically modified drug to turn the heads of the weak and feeble-minded.

Of course, Warren also implies that the heckler was incapable of having a thought of his own—a condescension that liberals should try not to practice in public. On the other hand, watch the video. The man actually may not own a thought.

What do you think of her interpretation? Effective? Let us know in the comments below.

I Came, I Saw, I Dodged

Mitt Romney uses an emphatic word repeater to avoid doing anything about global warming. But if you want to block any kind of action or choice, pay attention to his other trick: abstention from the future tense. It’s the right’s main weapon against science and the environment, and the left falls for it every time. By focusing on whodunit—whether humans or nature bear responsibility for the Earth’s warming—both sides fail to answer the central question: What are we going to do about it? 

My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.

Mitt Romney, presidential candidate

Ploce, the doubler. From the Greek, meaning “braid.” 

The ploce turns up the volume by repeating a word with another word or two in between. For example, “Enough is enough” makes a nice ploce—as well as a description of Figaro’s exasperation over global warming. Romney’s “trillions and trillions” lets him avoid any accuracy over the actual cost of CO2 reduction; it’s the opposite of “priceless.”

But we’re even more interested in the rhetorical strategy of tense. The future tense is where people make choices. That’s because a decision affects the future, not the past or present. If you want to avoid taking action, avoid the future tense. Nicely done, Governor Romney!

For more on word repeaters, see our sister site, Word Hero.

What a Drag!

Herman Cain’s latest Web ad shows his campaign manager taking a puff from a cigarette and blowing meaningfully into the camera. Pundits immediately chortled; one Washington Post blogger called it “the ‘Showgirls’ of political ads.” But should that cigarette become the butt of political jokes? Figaro thinks otherwise.

The cigarette represents a gesture, or rhetorical image. As with any gesture, you need to look behind the signal to the “orator’s” goal. What’s behind the smoke? What’s the motive?

In this case the motive is clear: to motivate a core group of passionate activists behind Herman Cain. The star of the ad, Mark Block, isn’t trying to convince the nation that Cain would make a good President. He’s trying to convince a few thousand Americans to get behind the candidate.  So he appeals to that group’s values. What do these potential supporters value most? Blunt honesty. Anti-PC. Marlboro Man toughness. 

So, while blowing smoke at the American voters may not seem like the height of honesty to most of us, to a select audience, the image is perfect.

A smoker who’s not afraid to smoke in front of other people.  He represents a do-it-my-way kind of orator.  Which, in turn, makes him a neat synecdoche.

Want to know more? See my explanation of the belonging trope on my Word Hero site.

Tweet Talk

Confession: Figaro doesn’t tweet. He barely chirps. But he’s not anti-Twitter. Some people see Twitter as yet more proof of the downfall of civilization. When we confine our profoundest thoughts to 140 characters, aren’t we walling in thought itself?

I’d argue that a great one-liner need not replace longer-form thinking. Nor does short always mean bad, and long good; read any Bulwer-Lytton novels lately? The ancient Greeks, those paragons of civilization, fell over each other in attempts to create the perfect one-liner.

So, in defense of 140-character immortality, I wrote this piece for the Huffington Post: 11 Ways to Get More Twitter Followers.

Between you and me, it’s really about ways to come up with memorable one-liners. Which is what figures are really all about.

Let me know what you think about the piece.