Re: [ADS-L] closed circle of friends

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 2/26/08 5:45:52 PM, jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM writes:


> She could have been misunderstood by the reporter, or
> heard correctly but the statement
> transcribed/typed/printed incorrectly.
>

In that case, the reporter or proof-reader would seem to have a faulty
understanding of the idiom. While that is possible, it seems more likely that the
teen-ager had the faulty understanding. By the way, this could not be a case
where a spell-checker or grammar-checker would have suggested some faulty idea to
the author or editor. Moreover, the quote appears in what appears to be a
nationally disturbuted column.

In any case, the issue is not who is the source of the misunderstanding, but
rather the fact that someone--a native speaker of the language--apparently has
this misconception of the idiom.


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