"The line was off the hook." (was Re: Syntactic blending: bunker down)

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

"The line was busy" + "The phone was off the hook."
 
Gerald Cohen

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Dennis R. Preston 
	Sent: Mon 10/13/2003 8:12 AM 
	To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
	Cc: 
	Subject: Re: Syntactic blending: bunker down
	
	

	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