Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I don’t remember the full phrase but a local grocery store has a sign advising “stalkers” how to organize the shelves. Rather open-minded of them, I thought. I think it qualifies as an eggcorn, what say you all?
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Well, what do you think the eggcornish logic would be? Maybe stalkers are employees who stalk the aisles looking for product that needs replenishment? That’s possible, but I’m not wholly persuaded, and that’s the only explanation that occurs to me. Having worked retail for a long, long time, I think most retail workers are really familiar with the concepts of “stock” and “stocking.” They may misspell those terms (especially if they speak a dialect with caught/cot merger), but they know the words’ standard meanings.
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I’m with Pat. But keep looking, traveler, I know there’s more out there. Not to be tangential, but I had a friend who clearly pronounced “caulking” as “corking”. I have no idea where that came from. He was college educated,but grew up way back in the boondocks. I wonder how he would have spelled it? As Pat said, I think the one you found has more to do with that sort of phenomenon than eggcorning.
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I’m guessing this is ‘stalker’ for ‘stocker’ ? And now I find myself clearly pronouncing ‘caulking’ as ‘corking’ and wondering what it would sound like if booboo was saying it – ‘call-king’ rather than ‘core-king’? It’s perhaps a good thing that we get together through the written medium rather than the spoken one as I fear there would be times when we’d be mutually unintelligible.
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Yeah, we may all need interpreters when we hold that big eggcorns conference for the fifth-year anniversary of the Database.
Merriam Webster online gives “cocking” as the only standard American pronunciation, but I’ve definitely heard Yanks say “callking” as well. In fact, I think I may use that non-standard form at times.
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I pronounce it “caw-king” and “cawk” or “call-k”. I’m 49 years old and have preserved some of my Texas accent from being sucked into the vortex of the new national accent…modified Southern California. My four adult daughters are coming along quite well, thank you, with their national identity. I’ve tried to get them to embrace their hick heritage, but to no avail.
If Merriam Webster says “cocking” is the only standard American pronunciation, they’re not talking/tocking to much of America. That would be more of a Northern or Northeastern dialect.
Funny aside: I saw a home improvement show recently where the kind Yankee gentleman went to Dallas to assist a young woman with a lawn sprinkler problem. He did the grunt work of digging a hole around a marked area. He asked her to get the loose dirt out of the bottom of the hole and “put it on the top.” She cheerfully complied and began to place the dirt on the lawn, next to the hole. “No! The TOP, the TOP!” He meant the TARP he had placed next to the hole! Man, was I laughing!
Translators?...yeah, we might need those. We’re dangerously close to a modern day Babel!
I’m fairly proficient at Texas twang, international Redneck and So-Cal. I can carry my own with Mid-West, Old South, Floridian, Texas Valley and some East Coast. Sorry, I’m not nearly as good at British English but my wife, a Californian, is exceptional with the same. Perhaps Peter could talk to me through my wife, and she in turn could translate to So-Cal as a common intermediary dialect! She has no idea what I’m writing right now, but I’m roaring inside myself!!!
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Booboo—oops, that was my mistake, not MW’s. The dictionary represents the sound in “caulk” with an “o,” so I just assumed how their phonetic transcription worked there. I went back and looked at “hock” and “hawk,” however, and guess what? They represent the sound in “hawk” with a plain “o,” and the sound in “hock” with an umlauted “a.” Seems a little counterintuitive, but anyhow. All of which means that they have the same understanding of the standard pronunciation of “caulk” that you do.
My misapprehension was made easier by the fact that, for me, “hawk” and “hock” sound exactly the same. (This is why I didn’t major in linguistics—I was terrified of that required phonology course.) Maybe Californian won’t be the best choice for our lingua franca after all.
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I’m with you, Pat. It doesn’t help a bit that there are a multitude of phonetic pronunciation systems. How in the hell did that happen? Seems like the first order of business is to decide on one system and boot out all the rest.
I actually took a few phonology courses and psycology of language courses, back in the day. They were awesome. I do admit, however, that there were several times when attempting to isolate a specific sound, that you could lose your bearings….it was just like in the movie “My Fair Lady”, when Henry Higgins would play those god awful recordings of pronunciations!
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The variation “take stalk of” might also provide some light on the “stalker” topic…
Most examples seem to be a misspelling, which if interpreted literally begets an amusing malapropism. But, having said that, I cannot help but feel that some are making a reference to the stalk of a vegetable—perhaps implying a vital link between root and leaf. Now, that just might qualify as an eggcorn, but convincing examples are hard to find.
CollegeBasics.com – Extracurricular Activities Help You Fit …
... make later after you have had time to take stalk of how you may change in college and of what the different character of each fraternity/sorority is. ...
www.collegebasics.com/first-year-of-college/adju… – 22k – Similar pages
http://www.collegebasics.com/first-year … it-in.html
Parenting and Lifestyle Coaching
Learn how to develop your child’s self-esteem and also how to take stalk of your own. We cannot give what we don’t have. “A ‘Need to Hear’ workshop. ...
www.theparentingcoach.com/workshops.html – 19k – Similar pages
http://www.theparentingcoach.com/workshops.html
Cooney Lake / Horsehead Pass Epic Adventure 2005
I pooled everyone together to take stalk of our survival gear. Did we have enough emergency supplies to survive if we got caught out there over night. ...
www.mgrc.org/lisa/Cooney%20Lake%20Web/Cooney%20L… – 16k – Similar pages
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In The Name Of Allah The Most Gracious The Most Merciful
... to His creation and as we begin this Holy month, we are required to take stalk of our individual progress and reflect on the issues facing our Ummah. ...
www.jihadunspun.com/Ramadan2007/mailernew.html – 23k – Similar pages
http://www.jihadunspun.com/Ramadan2007/mailernew.html
What’s Next?
Enterprise IT organizations really need to take stalk of who their customer is and what their purpose is. SQS conferences are always provocative, creative, ...
voke.blogspot.com/2006/09/its-futurea-clever-pla… – 19k – Similar pages
http://voke.blogspot.com/2006/09/its-fu … ds-by.html
Life Enhancement Coaching
Given the increased complexity we’re all experiencing in our daily lives, it is important to have an effective process to take stalk of our lives, ...
www.lifeenhancementcoaching.ca/ – 11k – Similar pages
http://www.lifeenhancementcoaching.ca/
Last edited by jorkel (2007-10-14 07:25:21)
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Eggcorn or not, the substitution is a round-tripper:
Not saying you should follow me around like a stocker.
nerd discussion
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