big of a
not that big/good etc. of a… – locuzione
as big/good of a… – locuzione
I’m not that big of a Harry Potter fan but I did read all the books.
Losing is as big of a habit as winning.
Plainly speaking, it’s just not that good of a film.
It’s as good of a win as we’ve had all season long.
Potrebbe esservi capitato di notare una costruzione grammaticale anomala usata dopo un aggettivo; invece di ‘It’s not that big a deal’ o ‘She’s not that good a writer’ molto spesso oggi si inserisce la preposizione of tra l’aggettivo e il sostantivo: ‘It’s not that big of a deal’; ‘She’s not that good of a writer’. E questo succede anche nelle affermazioni: ‘Exercise should be as big of a priority as sleep and healthy nutrition’; ‘He is just as great of a player.’
C’è chi trova da eccepire su tale uso, dato che of è ridondante; in effetti in ognuno dei casi sopracitati si può tranquillamente omettere la preposizione senza cambiare il significato. Tuttavia se quest’uso è concesso nel parlato è meglio evitarlo nello scritto.
Origini del termine
Questa è solo la mia opinione, ma penso che la costruzione sia nata per analogia con una simile (negativa) in cui compare much: ‘She’s not much of a painter’; ‘We didn’t have much of a summer last year’. Anche questo è un uso informale ma è generalmente accettato e non solleva eccezioni quanto of dopo un aggettivo; il motivo potrebbe essere che much è un quantificatore ed è spesso seguito da of, mentre ciò non accade di solito con gli aggettivi.
Traduzione di Loredana Riu
not that big/good etc. of a… – phrase
as big/good of a… – phrase
I’m not that big of a Harry Potter fan but I did read all the books.
Losing is as big of a habit as winning.
Plainly speaking, it’s just not that good of a film.
It’s as good of a win as we’ve had all season long.
You may have come across a slightly odd structure being used after adjectives. Instead of saying ‘It’s not that big a deal’ or ‘She’s not that good a writer’ people insert the preposition of between the adjective and the noun: It’s not that big of a deal; She’s not that good of a writer. The structure is also used in affirmative sentences: ‘Exercise should be as big of a priority as sleep and healthy nutrition’; ‘He is just as great of a player.’
Some people object to this usage on the grounds that the of is redundant, and it is true that you could remove the of in each case without changing the meaning. But language is full of redundancy and it’s not generally a problem except in careful writing where you might want to avoid it. Others claim there is a different shade of meaning in these cases: that you’re saying that you are a Harry Potter fan, but not a huge one; but this doesn’t work for the affirmative sentences and in any case I’m sceptical that the of really conveys such a difference in meaning.
Origin
I’m speculating here, but I think the structure might have come about by analogy with a similar (negative) structure using much: She’s not much of a painter; We didn’t have much of a summer last year. Although this use is also informal, it’s widely accepted and doesn’t raise hackles in the way that the structure using of after an adjective does. This may be because while much is a quantifier and is often followed by of, adjectives generally are not.
