[Lexicog] Re: lexical phrase

David Joffe david.joffe at TSHWANEDJE.COM
Tue Nov 14 15:34:40 UTC 2006


> This may just seem like a quibble, but there is some variation in "On
> the one hand..." and"On the other hand....." That's as far as it
> usually goes, because most people only have two hands. But I have also
> heard "On the third hand...." I suppose that one is mainly used
> facetiously. 

There is also "on the *other* other hand", also usually used 
slightly facetiously; this is actually canonical (i.e. 'recursive' 
in this context) in that one can continue to add "other"s as many 
times as one flips between two sides of an argument with new points 
for each side.

> In writing this, I decided to do a Google search, and I found a blog
> entitled "On the third hand" at http://site-essential.com/. (There was
> also a paid advertisement saying that if I wanted to buy a third hand,
> I should be able to find iton Ebay.) Also, I found an acronym OTTH at
> http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/On+the+Third+Hand.

Likewise there is an "OTOOH" 
(http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/On+the+Other+Other+Hand)

> I have to admit, whenever I hear someone say that there is no variation
> at all in some aspect of language, that tends to prompt my curiosity to
> consider if it is really true, since people can be so creative
> and versatile in their use of language.

Likewise.

 - David

---
http://tshwanedje.com/
TshwaneDJe Human Language Technology




 
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