"thing/think" [was: on the eggcorn beat]
Joel S. Berson
Berson at ATT.NET
Thu May 1 16:43:40 UTC 2008
At 5/1/2008 10:38 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>Indeed. The playful use of "think" is even more evident in the fuller
>version of the expression, "If you think X about Y, then you have
>another think coming."
This convinces me that "think" is correct and "thing" wrong ...but
then again I was always a believer.
For those who thing* it should be "another thing coming" -- I wonder
whether there's a distinction between mental and physical activity,
so that "if you [do something]" leads to "you have [something else]
coming". "If you come upside my head, you have another thing coming"?
Amy West almost says this, but still has the antecedent verb as mental:
>"if you think you're going to play with my models, you've got
>another thing coming".
I could not say that.
Joel
* noun verbing, of course.
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