pedalling those myths

Tue Jun 27 16:27:14 UTC 2006

On Jun 25, 2006, at 6:14 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> an eggcorn of possible interest:
>
> This is from a posting on a linguistics-related list (not ours, of
> course).  The poster, discussing a speech by an uninformed British
> prescriptivist who rejects the systematicity of non-standard
> varieties of English, objects to the necessity of "having to endure
> the pedalling of such dangerous myths by such an influential figure".
> I've earlier come across "soft-petalling" conclusions, so I guess
> it's only fair that "pedal" gets its eggcornish revenge elsewhere.

the database has soft-pedal >> soft-peddle (file 455) and backpedal
 >> backpeddle (175), but not (apparently) the reverse.  "peddle" and
"pedal" are easy spelling confounds, and that might be all that's
going on here.  i wonder what image the poster had in mind.

arnold

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