Syntactic blending: bunker down

[Dennis R. Preston]

I cannot find what syntax is blended in "I tried to reach you but the
line was off the hook."

dInIs

>"Bunker down" is not a blend. It's merely "hunker down" with the
>intrusion of "bunker" (based both on phonetic similarity and the idea
>of hunkering down in a bunker.
>
>>How can you test hypotheses about syntactic blending?  They are
>>common in bureaucratic/business speech and writing, but
>>investigation is a delicate matter.
>
>
>Syntactic blending is not really a feature of bureaucratic/business
>speech and writing, although it may occasionally creep in there, as
>it does elsewhere in everyday speech.  As for investigation, this is
>really a straightforward matter.
>If an unusual construction is patently composed of two at least
>roughly synonymous parts, it's a blend. (End of investigation).
>
>   For example, I once told my wife: "I tried to reach you, but the
>line was off the hook." As soon as I said it, I realized it was a
>blend. One of my students was in my office when I said that, and when
>I finished the conversation with my wife, he looked at me and said:
>"You know, that was a blend." (I had talked about blends earlier in
>the semester.
>
>   This particular blend was, of course: "The line was busy" + "The
>"phone was off the hook."
>
>   There are loads of examples.
>
>Gerald Cohen
>
>
>At 11:41 AM -0400 10/10/03, Seán Fitzpatrick wrote:
>>My grandmother called these "malaphors":  mala(propism) + (meta)phore
>>
>>>>From "Jonestown for Democrats:  Liberals follow Gray into the big
>>>nowhere", by Marc Cooper in the LA Weekly http://tinyurl.com/qgfm
>>>(emphasis added)
>>   As the insurgency swelled, the best that liberal activists could
>>do was plug their ears, cover their eyes and rather mindlessly
>>repeat that this all was some sinister plot linked to Florida,
>>Texas, Bush, the Carlyle Group, Enron, and Skull and Bones. By
>>BUNKERING DOWN with the discredited and justly scorned Gray Davis,
>>they wound up defending an indefensible status quo against a surging
>>wave of popular disgust.
>>"Hunker down" mixed up with some such phrase as  "go into the bunker with".
>>How can you test hypotheses about syntactic blending?  They are
>>common in bureaucratic/business speech and writing, but
>>investigation is a delicate matter.  People I've questioned haven't
>>known where they got the phrase.  Some were scarcely aware that they
>>had used it, some became indignant at having their wordsmithing
>>remarked upon or irritated at not knowing where the malaphore came
>>from, and a few have conceded they had probably confused a phrase or
>>two.
>>Seán Fitzpatrick

--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
      Asian & African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
e-mail: preston at msu.edu
phone: (517) 432-3099