Query: "on accident"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jul 30, 2005, at 1:18 PM, Larry Horn wrote:

> At least one of my children went through a brief "on accident" stage
> (not to mention more prolonged and messier "accident" stages ;-)
> I assume it's a blend, as noted--and I also recall an earlier thread
> here knocking this about.

i don't recall if i posted this before, but though "on accident" can
be seen as a blend of the idioms "on purpose" and "by accident", it
can also be seen as a simple extension of the pattern of the idiom
"on purpose", based on the fact that "accident" and "purpose" pattern
together in "accidentally" and "purposely".

>   I wonder if there's a compendium somewhere
> of "childhoodese", including (along with "on accident") e.g. "no
> fair", and probably many other examples.

there's an american english denial ("uh ?uh", with a low + fast fall
from very high pitch pattern) that i think is pretty much restricted
to kids.

> I'm not talking child
> language here as much as constructions (and maybe metathetic
> pronunciations like "pasghetti") occurring in children's English that
> are gradually unlearned by adolescence.  Pre-teen lingo?

age-grading.

arnold