SCALLOPINE MEXICANA

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Larry's point about a mistranslation is surely correct, but wouldn't the 
original form just be SCALLOPINE MEXICANA (etc.) without the preposition+articles? 
It seems to me that MEXICANA is just an adjective modifying the preceding 
noun. I find, for example, in a Google search PIZZA MEXICANA, Beef Mexicana con 
Pappas, la mole mexicana, etc.

In a message dated 5/10/06 3:58:36 PM, laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:


> At 3:18 PM -0400 5/10/06, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >>Greetings again from Santorini. From various beach restaurants here:
> >>...
> >>SCALLOPINE MEXICAN WOMAN
> >>FILET BEEF MEXICAN WOMAN
> >>HAMBURGER MEXICAN WOMAN--One restaurant had all three of these.
> >>"Mexican Woman"??
> >>
> >This is a lovely eggcorn--a (mis)translation of "alla mexicana" or "à
> >la mexicaine" or some such cognate, I'd wager.  The feminine ending
> >is of course originally for an adjective modifying the feminine noun
> >"style", but it's been reanalyzed as if the "Mexicana" were a
> >feminine noun.
> >
> Of course the reference to "style" is mistaken; that's a masculine
> noun.  The understood nominal modified by "mexicaine", "française",
> etc. must be something like "mode", "manière", or "façon".  My bad.
> (This doesn't affect the general diagnosis of Barry's menu items
> above.)
> 
> LH
> 
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