idiom blend

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Fri Feb 15 15:45:07 UTC 2008


caught on NPR this morning: "there's no two ways around this".

raw google webhits:

for the blend:
   no two ways around this: 801
   no two ways around it: 7,910

for one model:
   no two ways about this: 567
   no two ways about it: 165,000

for the other:
   no way around this: 172,000
   no way around it: 281,000

the first model idiom is pretty clearly "no two ways about it" 'no
doubt about it', and is so listed in the Cambridge idiom dictionaries.

the second is "no way around NP" 'NP is unavoidable'.

the blend seems to have the meaning of the first model, so it's an
intrusion blend -- the first model with "around" intruding from the
second.

arnold

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