Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
In discussing vague and inchoate urinings , David Bird (or Burred, or something of the sort) comments:
I suspect the perps wonder what urine has to do with it.
I expect we’ve discussed this somewhere before, but it struck me how eggcorn-like such situations are (assuming David’s suspicion is right, which I think it probably is.)
.
We mentioned a few days ago cases where a perp perceives an eggcorn structure, but makes sense of it by misunderstanding the meaning of that eggcorn (the case in point was ad homonym (again) ). They are likely in that particular case, and doubtless others, not really sure of the standard meaning of the eggcorn (“homonymâ€). This kind takes it just a smallish step further: instead of misunderstanding or being doubtful of the meaning of the eggcorn, they are pretty sure of its meaning (i.e. they are pretty sure they perceive “urine†and do not doubt its primary meaning) but are unsure of how that meaning connects to the meaning they correctly understand for the larger structure (here “urining†to mean a feeling of longing.)
.
Many eggcornish structures are likely to be this way for a number of speakers who use them. We have (rightly, I think) wanted to be able to reasonably posit clear misunderstandings that make sense before we will recognize an eggcorn, but for some users of the same structures the clear misunderstanding may persist even if it doesn’t make very clear sense.
.
I guess the discussion of youth in Asia was along these lines. Particularly relevant was the comment
I couldn’t figure out what the Youth in Asia had to do with people dying, but I figured I should know and was too embarassed to ask.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2013-12-06 07:25:55)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline
Semantics is not something we insist on in our everyday English. There are plenty of expressions that we use without giving them a second thought: where on earth does “by and large” come from? No wonder that
Where other industries have benefited from advancements in innovation during recent decades the clothing industry has buy and large remained non automated
is out there, in amongst the Wal-E film references. It almost makes more sense (ie wholesale).
On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
Offline
Yes, we may wonder more about urinings and buying-in-large than the perps do. In some ways that sideways suspension-of-understanding aspect is interesting too. Words and language are more than simple tools, I guess. They’re organic and the logic can be like dream logic, that is no logic at all but what we make of it. We would fall if we were continually looking down at our footing.
BTW, I should have added the possibility of wetting oneself with excitement. As an underpinning of urinings.
They constantly talk about how they almost (or did) threw up during the workout and how sore they are. These are guys that are buy in large, pretty in shape to start with.
bike forum
Offline
Buying large, those shopping for XXL clothing do tend to be overweight.
Words and language are … organic and the logic can be like dream logic, that is no logic at all but what we make of it. We would fall if we were continually looking down at our footing.
Well said.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2013-12-06 07:34:05)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/234/by-enlarge/
So if we are to concede that taking an apparently nonsensical expression and making more sense of it is a logical move then all the perps of WTF eggcorns who have moved away from a transparent meaning to something weirder may have thought that the “right” way was the well-intentioned but wrong recasting and their odd take on it was the good one.
Which means that we can forget about the semantic justifications.
On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
Offline
No, don’t forget about them. Just realize that cases that don’t have them nailed down and watertight are different only in degree, not in kind, from the ones that do. The latter category are the prototypical eggcorns, the center of the category.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline