Eggcorn lesson

[LanDi Liu]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 11:12 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky
<zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Eggcorn lesson
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Oct 3, 2008, at 7:28 AM, LanDi Liu wrote:
>
>> If a shock to the system can be lessened by training, then this sounds
>> like an eggcorn.
>>
>> What's very odd is that that electronic warning sound is so horrific,
>> that even knowing it's coming and bracing yourself for it does very
>> little to lesson the shock to your system.
>> http://www.metafilter.com/75349/When-the-Wind-Blows#2284253
>
> it's in brians: www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/lessen.html
>
> some other webhits (less than 50) for "lesson the shock".
>
> it's not  at all clear this is an eggcorn, rather than just a
> misspelling.  i think i'd need to hear someone defending "lesson" on
> semantic grounds.
>
> arnold

I don't think it's absolutely clear either, but the semantic angle was
what I was trying to get at with "lessened by training".  Lesson the
shock = training the shock to be less.

--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
My Manchu studies blog:
http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu

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