Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Do we have a name for reshapings that strictly follow a grammar rule—but where an exception to the rule is required? I mean… other than the term, “bad grammar.” For instance, good would wrongly lead to the progression gooder and goodest. Also, I know a young child who says mines (rather than mine) in distinction to yours. Although these are usually distinct from eggcorns, do we know of any eggcorns that derive from errant application of a grammar rule? (Or perhaps that contradicts the fundamental way that eggcorns are formed: by mishearing others).
Last edited by jorkel (2009-04-05 15:08:39)
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The production of regular paradigms such as good, gooder, goodest is often called overregularization or more generally overgeneralization. As you say, it’s quite common during language acquisition.
I don’t know of any well-attested eggcorns (as opposed to something like family in-jokes) that have resulted from overgeneralization. There are, however, some reshapings based on analogy, which is sort of similar. I am thinking of the construction of irregular verb paradigms, as in dive, dove, dove by analogy to drive, drove, driven. Again, I can’t think of any eggcorns based on this particular type of analogy, but I wouldn’t be shocked to run across some.
Hmm, since you mention mines, I’m thinking about regional nonstandard pronouns like mine, yourn or you, youse. Also not eggcorns, but they seem to be reshapings by analogy
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Faster ‘n’ looser? This one has been floating in the air since it was last referenced a week and a half ago: (http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=3629). Might that have been the source of this challenging question, Jorkel?
One way overregularization might develop into an interesting innovation is through a false consideration of a word ending in ”-er” as a
comparative, and so going the next step to the superlative by adding an ”-est”. They may not be eggcorns, but they might be astonishing nonetheless.
What do you make of these, for example? Wonder to wondest? Fondest mixed with wanted? Won, winner, wondest?
wikipedia entry:
Policarpo’s wondest dream is to see Brazil as one of the world’s most powerful nations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lima_Barreto)
Vietnamese video review:
Declared by Swami as the Wonder of Wondest of the 21st Century.
(http://www.get.vn/video/search/76th/7)
Electronics review:
The generous HD is Life Drives wondest and worst characteristic!
(http://review.cnetdata.com/12/OPN31383012.htm)
Computer reviews:
My wondest tech-dream was a laptop: not too powerful and not too basic, but a good one. Well, I won a better one in my 15 years’ birthday: I won a Dell …
(www.notebookshopper.com/4691-3121-32445398.html)
There are almost 9000 rghits for “winnest”: the winnest NBA coach, the winnest team, the winnest casino… Other connections to superlative eggcorns (or not) could come about by transmutation of an ”-ous” into an ”-est”
Abusive radio blog comment:
Nobody knows anything about him except he is led by SATIN He will destroy the religest system of the USA and everthing that most people believe in . (http://wsbradio.com/liveweb/comments/abuse/1000710/)
TV forum comment:
If our Pastors, Priest, etc. are going to be sued if they do not perform same sex marriages, then they are going againts our religest beliefs.
(http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/33739164.html)
Last edited by burred (2009-04-06 17:48:49)
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I have a bunch of – ist/-est goofs:
athiest, purest = purist, lobbiest, elitest, greatist, copiest, nudest colony, aethist, diest
It is very difficult to tell if any of them (a) are standard for anybody, or (b) involve for those people the restructuring they might suggest to us. Most of them are probably just pronunciation spellings, not restructurings.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Nudest colony! Priceless.
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I just thought I’d approach the eggcorn issue from a novel direction and see what turns up; I was perhaps thinking a bit too abstractly, but you guys came up with some nice concrete ideas to pursue. I got a good chuckle out of religest and nudest.
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Hi, Jorkel
“Mines” by analogy to “yours” is very common in urban, especially black, speech, and is not confined to children. Here’s a rude comment from the “Urban Dictionary” on line:
mines
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Our son is slightly bi-lingual (my wife is German but we live in the UK so he gets lots more English input than German), so for him the translation of mine to meins (“das ist meins”, dependent on use for the ending of course) compounds this and ‘mines’ is a natural misunderstanding anyway, but maybe it’s more general than that and we are just blaming ourselves for the confusion of two tongues.
He also overregularises buy > buyed; give > gived; bite > bited and so on. What amazes us most is how quickly he has teached himself the correct irregular forms when telled them by us.
His recent eggcornish outcry was that he did not like his dinner because it was too “bitten” (having heard someone complain of something being too “bitter” no doubt).
I like the idea that an agnostic is a little bit athey, on a scale where Richard Dawkins is the atheyest.
“Nudest” camp qualifies as an eggcorn – except for the fact that it is actually valid, rather than incorrect. That camp is certainly nuder than the next one, so it is not wrong. Paradox.
Jimmy Carr:
“A rather large American lady came up to me after the show and said ‘I didn’t like your act, I think you’re fat-ist’ and I replied ‘No, I think you’ll find you’re fattest’ ”
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will buy a ridiculous hat – Scott Adams (author of Dilbert)
Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day; set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life – Terry Pratchett
http://blog.meteorit.co.uk
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Re athiest , mentioned above:
Why bother? YOu can’t be any athier than I am.
athiests. Some are athier than others, yet not among the athiest.
Real Americans don’t like her athier-than-thou attitude.
How athy was he? Who was he athier than?
These are mostly if not entirely advertent snark, but relevant anyway. People are aware of the possibility of re-analyzing the word, for sure.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2017-04-08 14:26:09)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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burred wrote:
Nudest colony Priceless.
Incidentally, years ago I heard some wag say that nudists have a term for those who wear clothing in nudist social situations; they call them “exhibitionists”. I don’t know if that’s true, but I love it.
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