Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
Any way you interpret a sing-a-songwriter, it still comes out “singer/songwriter”. If it’s an eggcorn, it didn’t fall very far from the tree. Eggcorn…ish.
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I thought that singer/songwriter was spelled this way: sing-a-song-writer...
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I don’t think that “singsong writer” makes an intentional connection with a monotonous or singsong voice. It looks like a variant of sing-a-song.
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I am an artist/singsong writer
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This one works for me. I do have a special place in my heart for these little tiny but quite real changes, grammatical or not depending on how one divvies up the world.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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On the one hand, I agree with David’s choice of Slips for this since the broader semantic focus is hardly changed at all. On the other hand, however, the reshaping within that larger focus is pretty darn thoroughgoing, with every element of the acorn shifting its meaning in some way. This may not be a good eggcorn, but it’s a delightful and amazing example of some nameless something.
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I don’t understand what you’re saying, Pat. “The broader semantic focus is hardly changed at allâ€â€”isn’t that almost criterial for an eggcorn? The person(s) who used that word meant by it the little seed thing, a nut with a cap, that grows on an oak tree and drops on the ground, just like we who use the word acorn mean. But to the extent that the reshaping within that meaning is striking, “with every element of the acorn shifting its meaning in some wayâ€, it seems to me that you have made the case that this is indeed a very good eggcorn.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I don’t understand what you’re saying, David. ”’The broader semantic focus is hardly changed at all’—isn’t that almost criterial for an eggcorn?” Nope—criterial for an eggcorn is a radical shift. So I guess I’m making the case that this is indeed a very bad eggcorn. But it’s still very, very good.
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I guess the question is what we mean by “broaderâ€. I thought you meant the overall meaning, particularly the designation, of the whole expression. An eggcorn is (i.e. the word designates) the same thing as an acorn, and a sing-a-songwriter is the same thing as a singer-songwriter. The radical shift takes place internally to the expression, having to do with its components (the same as your “elementsâ€?) and how they fit together: an egg, or the notion of sing-a-song, suddenly appears, the word singer disappears. I thought that was what you meant by “the reshaping within that larger focus.â€
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2010-03-09 08:16:17)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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