Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
From the FA News online newsletter:
REAL HOUSE PRICE GROWTH REMAINS ILLUSIVE
http://www.fanews.co.za/article.asp?Eco … usive;7363
“illusive” suggests to me that there is real growth in house prices, but it is an illusion, whereas what the writer seems to be saying is that the growth we presumably hope for is still out of reach. A comment on the opaque way that those with vested interests calculate and publicise the house price figures could have used that headline, and would have made a more interesting article. As it is, the headline is really all you need to read in this case, once you’ve mentally corrected it.
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Welcome to the forum, pomducap.
The trio of elusive/allusive/illusive are regularly cited by language watchdogs (e.g., http://www.buffam.com/Stuff/grammar.html ). I don’t think we’ve ever had a significant discussion, however, of the eggcornish possiblilties of these interchanges. A quick search of the web for “remains illusive” suggests that the example you cite is only the tip of an iceberg.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Jorkel briefly mentioned the allusive/elusive/illusive trio in his famous “Common Errors in English” post, and he also discussed the elusive/illusive duo in a bit more depth here: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=1515
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Wow! That was an old post of mine! (I’m not even sure I agree with what I once said!) In fact, I forgot I even wrote about this eggcorn. We can certainly revisit the discussion since our understanding has improved over the years.
By the way, the Common Errors in English post was drawn from Paul Brian’s work. He occasionally chimes in with new material, but I suppose he deserves some credit for pointing out this eggcorn.
Last edited by jorkel (2010-01-19 20:29:07)
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