Mark Sanford May Be Smarter Than We Thought, Sez Penn Prof

According to Daily Intel, Linguistics prof Mark Liberman has been trying to decode the statements of South Carolina's scandal-ridden governor, Mark Sanford. Daily Intel writes: "For instance, Liberman suggests that when Sanford talked about 'doing stupid,' he may have been channeling the New International Version of the Bible — which refers to 'doing good' and 'doing wrong' — when he nominalized the adjective."

We dug a little further and found that on Language Log, Liberman draws an interesting comparison between Sanford's statement that "the biggest self of self is indeed self" and Gerard Manley Hopkins' unfinished fragment On the Portrait of Two Beautiful Young People.

Here's an excerpt: "Man lives that list, that leaning in the will/ No wisdom can forecast by gauge or guess,/The selfless self of self, most strange, most still,/ Fast furled and all foredrawn to No or Yes."

Liberman doubts Sanford is "familiar" with the fragment, but hey, it's a cool parallel. And Linguistics professors teaching us how to excuse awkward syntax — that's kinda cool too.