[Ads-l] A newish construction and a newish euphemism

[Laurence Horn]

> On Apr 4, 2019, at 4:29 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for your response LH.
> 
> Below is a joke that relies on a displacement that, I think, is in
> some ways analogous. The original target phrase of this discussion
> thread is:
> They cheated their children’s way into college.
> 
> The more common expression (with a different meaning) is:
> The children cheated their way into college.
> 
> Consider this comical expression:
> The father worked his son's way through college.
> 
> The more common expression (with a different meaning) is:
> The son worked his way through college.
> 
> Here is the joke I found in 1925. The phrasing is different, but the
> key idea is similar.
> 
> Newspaper: The Ottawa Campus
> Newspaper Location: Ottawa, Kansas
> Date: December 9, 1925
> Page: 3
> Database: Newspapers.com
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> Father will be glad when he has finished working his son's way through college.
> [End excerpt]

Exactly the same, other than the fact that the Kansas readers were expected to understand this as a joke, whereas Lester Holt (or his writer) was presumably expecting his listeners to take his construction in stride.  Here’s another one a non-list colleague just sent me, which I found even odder than the NBC News one, although it’s in the same family:

Burglary Suspect Claims He Threw Ex's Keys Into Creek | Fort Smith ...
 
https://5newsonline.com/2013/01/26/burglary-suspect-claims-he-threw-exs-keys-into-creek/
 
Jan 26, 2013 - A Fayetteville man faces a felony charge of residential burglary and a handful of misdemeanors after his ex-girlfriend told police he forced her way into her apartment, pushed her down and stole her key chain. […]

=========
The first two times I read it, I parsed it as “he forced his way into her apartment”

LH



> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Apr 4, 2019 at 2:04 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> Same meaning, but not the same construction.  Maybe “His parents paved his way into office” but not “His parents lied/cheated/bribed/blackmailed his way into office”.  Only he could have done that.
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>>> On Apr 3, 2019, at 11:04 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Does this fit the template you are interested in?
>>> 
>>> [Begin match]
>>> T. Macci Plauti Trinummus, Page 135
>>> https://books.google.com/books?id=1bcLnVxnE0gC
>>> Titus Maccius Plautus, ‎Joseph Henry Gray - 1897
>>> 
>>> A distinguished father paved his son's path to office, the son must
>>> keep the road open for his descendants. 644. atque honor! posterorum
>>> tuorum ut uindex fieres, ...
>>> [End match]
>>> 
>>> Garson
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Apr 3, 2019 at 10:47 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Has anyone encountered cases in which one X’s *someone else’s* way somewhere as opposed to just X-ing one's own way there?  I heard this from Lester Holt on tonight’s NBC Nightly News, and while it’s clear what’s meant, I didn’t know one could say it this way.  He was describing the ongoing college admissions scandal and referred to Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman being arraigned in court on…
>>>> 
>>>> “charges that they cheated their children’s way into college”.
>>>> 
>>>> The euphemism is “edibles”, as in this Times piece:
>>>> 
>>>> Obviously, an edible is transparently anything that one can eat, but in this sense it’s a bit like “drink” = ‘alcoholic beverage’.  One of my favorites along these lines is the option in some college residences of opting for a “substance-free" floor.
>>>> 
>>>> LH
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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