<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Some stuff &#187; Phrase</title>
	<atom:link href="http://blog.yhuang.org/?feed=rss2&#038;tag=phrase" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>https://blog.yhuang.org</link>
	<description>here.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2025 08:50:58 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>where dreams are made of</title>
		<link>https://blog.yhuang.org/?p=1549</link>
		<comments>https://blog.yhuang.org/?p=1549#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2014 20:41:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alicia Keys]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Empire State of Mind]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jay-Z]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Phrase]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rapping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reddit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syntax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Word play]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://allegro.mit.edu/~zong/wpress/?p=1549</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hmm, never noticed this. In the song Empire State of Mind, the chorus has what some people consider a grammatical mistake. In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of There&#8217;s nothing you can&#8217;t do Now you&#8217;re in New York These streets will make you feel brand new Big lights will inspire you Let&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hmm, never noticed this. In the song Empire State of Mind, the chorus has what some people consider a grammatical mistake.</p>
<p><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width=560 height=315 data="//www.youtube.com/v/vk6014HuxcE?start=54&#038;end=83"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/vk6014HuxcE?start=54&#038;end=83" /><!-- original http://www.youtube.com/v/0UjsXo9l6I8 --><param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /></object></p>
<p><em>In New York, concrete jungle <u>where dreams are made of</u><br />
There&#8217;s nothing you can&#8217;t do<br />
Now you&#8217;re in New York<br />
These streets will make you feel brand new<br />
Big lights will inspire you<br />
Let&#8217;s hear it for New York, New York, New York</em></p>
<p>Some people consider &#8220;of&#8221; to be ungrammatical here. Some <a href="http://rap.genius.com/Jay-z-empire-state-of-mind-lyrics#note-226160">lyric transcripts</a> even leave it off. I don&#8217;t know, it&#8217;s there, can&#8217;t pretend it&#8217;s not there.<br />
<span id="more-1549"></span><br />
Some think it&#8217;s <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/missmarm/2010/08/18/where-dreams-are-made-of-wait">hip hop&#8217;s liberty</a> with syllables. Hip hop may be loose with syllables, but I don&#8217;t believe there were no other choices. Some propose that Alicia Keys <a href="http://coolingpierecords.blogspot.com/2010/01/empire-state-of-mind-makes-no-sense.html">crossed her wires</a> during recording and it should be &#8220;made true&#8221; from the rhyming scheme. Two plosives contacting doesn&#8217;t make for good articulation on the long note, so, unlikely. Another quip <a href="https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/2585856">has it as</a> &#8220;where dreams are Madoff.&#8221; Most brilliantly, Reddit <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/ad6gx/dear_jayz_and_alicia_keys_its_either_where_dreams/">proposes</a> that it introduces the next line as a dependent clause. There is some evidence from phrasing to support that and at least it&#8217;s internally logical.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I believe the most likely explanation is some kind of extended <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeugma">zeugma</a>, combining &#8220;concrete jungle where dreams are made&#8221; with the idiomatic &#8220;the stuff that dreams are made of.&#8221; Besides, the lead-in by Jay-Z, &#8220;&#8230;that I&#8217;m most definitely from&#8230;&#8221; already clashes, in both timing and meaning, with &#8220;&#8230;in New York&#8221; of the chorus, so it&#8217;s not like there is no precedence for this kind of wordplay (though usually contrapuntal, as here). Whether it&#8217;s intentional or mistaken, I don&#8217;t know, but by getting multiple meanings across, it&#8217;s accepted as a syntactic pun. Maybe that&#8217;s why few people have flagged it.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>https://blog.yhuang.org/?feed=rss2&#038;p=1549</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
