the replacement of "replace" and substitution of "substitute"

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Fri Mar 17 21:25:53 UTC 2006


On Mar 16, 2006, at 9:23 PM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:

>> From today's... well, the March 16... letter column of the NY Times:
>
>>>>
>
> To the Editor:
>
> "Drop Out of the College" [an editorial proposing scrapping the
> Electoral
> College -- MAM] proposes that the nation substitute the time-proven
> judgment
> of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and the other founding fathers
> for the
> views of your editorial board.
>
> With all due respect, I will stick with the founding fathers.
>
> John Enerson
> Houston, March 14, 2006
>
> <<<
>
> The world has ended. No news at 8.

yeah.  this is a full reversal -- not just the "substitute OLD with/
by NEW" variety, but "substitute OLD for NEW".

arnold, who's sent this on to david denision, the reversed-substitute
maven

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