Language Hard

Language Log have a couple of posts about the new US Army slogan, “Army Strong“. Geoffrey Pullum, a person rather than an instruction, provides an analysis which seems plausible to me (that the noun is modifying the adjective, an unusual but not unknown situation) but wasn’t my first choice: to me, “the” and “is” have clearly been left out of a sentence designed to convey the simplest message in the most basic way.

If the Hulk thought you were strong, you’d be pretty strong. The first comment on this clip of the advert seems more likely to me, though.

Hulk