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  • My shoes are [of] the wrong color.
  • This new wallpaper is [of] an odd pattern.

At first, one could say these are noun phrases functioning as predicate nominatives; however, the awkwardness in meaning suggests that a preposition was omitted and the subject complement is actually an adjectival prepositional phrase. Is this the case? If so, when is the omission allowed?

mjfneto
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  • The only hidden preposition I see is "on". – Hot Licks Mar 17 '21 at 00:19
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    what do you mean by "the awkwardness in meaning"? how are these examples awkward similarly awkward? – cpit Mar 17 '21 at 00:59
  • Could you clarify your meaning? None of these sentences read as awkward to me, and none of them require a preposition. In fact, inserting of makes each sentence more awkward! – FeliniusRex - gone Mar 17 '21 at 01:27
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    "My shoes are the wrong color" appears the same construction as "My shoes are green". No awkwardness or missing pronoun there. – Stuart F Mar 17 '21 at 11:45

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“Of” is not simply redundant, it changes the meaning slightly. “Of” indicates that the object belongs to a certain category, undesirable in the given context.

Not merely a random wrong (or odd) item — an item of the wrong kind.