the replacement of "replace" and substitution of "substitute"

[Jonathan Lighter]

My God, I had to read that thing five times (and then refer to the thread title) before I could figure out what the guy was saying !  And the editor thought it was just fine....q

  This "sub/rep" issue, which I've been viewing with alarm for a number of years, may  prove to be the biggest SOTA of the past fifty.  At least stuff like "incent" is immediately comprehensible.

  Shouldn't we be giving out annual booby prizes for such phenomena ?

  Awwwww, crap. Why bother ?

  JL


"Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Mark A. Mandel"
Subject: the replacement of "replace" and substitution of "substitute"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>From today's... well, the March 16... letter column of the NY Times:

>>>

To the Editor:

"Drop Out of the College" [an editorial proposing scrapping the Electoral
College -- MAM] proposes that the nation substitute the time-proven judgment
of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and the other founding fathers for the
views of your editorial board.

With all due respect, I will stick with the founding fathers.

John Enerson
Houston, March 14, 2006

<<<

The world has ended. No news at 8.

-- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian,
Orthoepist, & Philological Busybody
a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel

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