Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Tonight on the TV news it sounded to me like the reporter said they had to “extradite” someone from a crashed vehicle. I did a little web searching and sure enough:
The woman had to be extradited from the vehicle by the “jaws of life†and transported to Rhode Island Hospital.
news report
Mroz was extradited from the vehicle and taken to a hospital.
another news report
After being extradited from the vehicle, Millender was rushed to Lakeland Regional Medical Center where she died, deputies said.
yet another one
The dispatcher said the girl had to be extradited from the vehicle, but it did not appear her injuries were life-threatening.
and another
Tecpile had to be extradited from the vehicle and suffered major head trauma.
you guessed it
So, extradite for extricate. Eggcorn, sez I. When I find the time maybe I’ll figure out some search terms to help me find out if it’s a round-tripper…
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Extract probably contributes its bit too.
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I don’t see it as an eggcorn, just a blendish malapropism. I don’t think anybody is thinking “deport, legally remove from your country into another country’s jurisdictionâ€, like the people saying eggcorn are thinking “egg-shaped corn-sized/like seedâ€. More likely they knew extricate/extract, heard extricate and thought it was a fancier version of the same, and used it according to that mis-understanding.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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DavidTuggy wrote:
I don’t see it as an eggcorn, just a blendish malapropism. I don’t think anybody is thinking “deport, legally remove from your country into another country’s jurisdictionâ€, like the people saying eggcorn are thinking “egg-shaped corn-sized/like seedâ€.
Fair enough.
More likely they knew extricate/extract, heard extricate and thought it was a fancier version of the same…
By that second “extricate”, you mean extradite, don’t you?
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Yes. (Blush)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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DavidTuggy wrote:
I don’t see it as an eggcorn, just a blendish malapropism. I don’t think anybody is thinking “deport, legally remove from your country into another country’s jurisdictionâ€...
Probably most people know that “extradite” describes removing someone from a country, but how many of them have a clear idea of just how specific the word is? I think it plausible that some folks would imagine that “extradite”, while usually used for the situations you describe, is general enough to be applied to any situation in which we are removing someone from something. The average Joe or Jane would be less likely than the average eggcornista to know just how specific or how general a word like “extradite” may be. Thus they’d be more likely to eggcornize based on overgeneralization of the acorn’s meaning. I think we err in not attributing eggcornicity in situations wherein a perp may be eggcorning based on a fuzzier understanding of the acorn’s meaning than we word-freaks have, and I think this issue should be revisited in our deliberations re: the eggcornicity (or lack of it) of a number of words we’ve discussed.
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It’s a fair point, Dixon. I still have my doubts about the particular example, though. Like many examples, I guess I would want to leave this in the lower range of the “possiblesâ€, not particularly high on the “probables†list. But it is a judgment call, and you are right as to its possibility.
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This argument is a dangerous tool though. I suppose any malapropism could be analyzed as an eggcorn with the reasoning “the perps think [insert eggcorn] means [insert acorn], and use it accordingly.†Where’s the “structural change†so beloved of us eggcorn-seekers, in that case?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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DavidTuggy wrote:
This argument is a dangerous tool though. I suppose any malapropism could be analyzed as an eggcorn with the reasoning “the perps think [insert eggcorn] means [insert acorn], and use it accordingly.â€
Not true. There is only some subset of malapropisms for which we could imagine a plausible meaning connection (regardless of how strictly or loosely we define “plausible”). Of course, plausibility isn’t always actuality, but that uncertainty (absent perp confessions) factors into nearly all eggcorn cases.
Where’s the “structural change†so beloved of us eggcorn-seekers, in that case?
I must confess that I’m unclear on the occasional references to structural change or reanalysis I see herein. Maybe it’s my utter lack of linguistic training, which often has me stumbling to keep up in this crowd. My understanding thus far is that a plausible explanation for why people would think the eggcorn would make sense in context is sufficient to satisfy the meaning criterion. What this has to do with “structural change” or “reanalysis” is beyond me. And maybe I’m just wrong about that anyway. Dunno.
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