Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I believe that eggcorns occur most often because people HEAR phrases but have not seen them in print and assume a more familar spelling than the traditional (Chomping for Champing at the bit, for example).
I would submit that “short-lived” (pronounced with a short i) is in fact a pronounced eggcorn for “short-lived (long i).
Bear with me (or Bare with me as this is the internet . . .), since the explanation is somewhat complex.
The mispronunciation is in fact a substitution of one homograph for another. (Homographs are different words that are spelled the same, and which may have some semantic link, but not necessarily).
The past tense or past participle of “to live” is LIVED. (n.b., short i)
An adjective describing something related to a life is LIVED. (long i)
This second word is the correct form for “short-lived” since it is a description of the lenght of life.
The change from the /f/ to the voiced /v/ is fairly common in English (cf. hoof/hooves grief/grieve), thus life->lived. (again, long i).
SO WHY IS THIS AN EGGCORN? I believe it has all of the necessary parts of an eggcorn, but for the written distinction; this eggcorn exists only in spoken English, and as such is harder to cite.
Still, we’ve all heard responsible, sensible people make the mistake of pronouncing “short-lived” as if the topic lived a short time, instead of having the quality of a short life, which is the intention of the phrase.
Jay Malarcher
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