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Chris -- 2018-04-11
#1 2007-12-19 00:32:48
- mcovarru
- Member
- Registered: 2007-11-06
- Posts: 13
caused the game < cost the game
I first saw this in a comment by “Bettyboo” on a Yahoo page
From the start I knew that Jessica (the air head) was going to cause the Cowboys the game.
Has it been covered? I didn’t find it in any forum searches for “cost” “caused” “caused the game” or “cost the game”.
I found plenty of hits out there. I can’t pin down the semantic motivation behind ‘cost>caused’. But it’s a clear use of the verb within the typical constraints for tense (with a few exceptions).
Several that use “caused” instead of “cause”
Any fool can see that is what caused us the game
h3po4 did an really nice \kill on map16, almost caused us the game
‘It was not the untimely timeout that caused us the game ’ explained Cuban
And some showing that even with the original cost>caused mishearing, the verb is still bound by the expected grammar.
which will cause them the game in the end.
This decision may cause them the game which is unfortunate
——————-
I wrote a bit introducing mentioning it and linked to a few more examples here.
Last edited by mcovarru (2007-12-19 08:29:34)
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#2 2007-12-19 01:29:24
- patschwieterman
- Administrator
- From: California
- Registered: 2005-10-25
- Posts: 1680
Re: caused the game < cost the game
Cost>>caused has a Database entry here: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/636/caused/
The article seems to second your comment about the lack of a clear semantic motivation—it quotes Arnold Zwicky as calling this “blendish rather than eggcornish.”
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#3 2007-12-19 08:41:17
- mcovarru
- Member
- Registered: 2007-11-06
- Posts: 13
Re: caused the game < cost the game
Excellent. I thought I searched well enough. I obviously didn’t.
One example that I found looks like evidence of the blend influence.
“however lack of focus could cause them the game and loose ground to Inter Milan.” (source)
It looks like a mistake. Possibly intended “cause them [to lose] the game and [lose] ground”.
It could be a similar ellipsis of “to lose” that’s working in a lot of these.
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