Yankee eggcorn

[Neal Whitman]

I'd guess the source for the eggcorn is "never ceases to amaze me".

Neal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: Yankee eggcorn


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> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Yankee eggcorn
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 2:43 PM -0400 9/22/08, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>Sounds like a variety of so-called "spade logic" to me, an attempt to
>>control forms with which he is totally unfamiliar in a failed attempt
>>to live up to what to what he feels that his interlocutors expect of
>>him, so as not to disgrace the race.
>>
>>You find the same thing among white players trying not to sound like
>>dumb jocks.
>
> Jeter is both (black player and white player, that is, not dumb
> jock).  But there are an awful lot of other "never seem to amaze me"
> or even "never seem to amaze me on how" speakers.  Are they all
> trying to impress their interlocutors, or mightn't some of them just
> be under the impression that that's what the locution is, as opaque
> as it may seem?
>
> LH
>
>>
>>Needless to say, there are players who are self-assured enough to use
>>so-called "colorful" <har! har!> language, irregardless of the
>>enviyerment in which they find themselves.
>>
>>(Yes, I'm aware that not every user of colorful language is colored. A
>>prime counterexample is Saint Louis's own "Yogi" Berra.)
>>
>>-Wilson
>>
>>On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 10:20 AM, Laurence Horn
>><laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>  Subject:      Re: Yankee eggcorn
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  At 9:47 AM -0400 9/22/08, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>>>On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 12:06 AM, Benjamin Zimmer
>>>><bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>   Derek Jeter to Peter Gammons on ESPN just now (after the last
>>>>>game at Yankee
>>>>>   Stadium): "The fans here never seem to amaze me."
>>>>
>>>>Listen for yourself here (right at the beginning of the clip):
>>>>
>>>>http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?categoryId=2378529&brand=null&videoId=3601782&n8pe6c=2
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>   The Eggcorn Database already has "never seize(s) to amaze":
>>>>>
>>>>>   http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/351/seize/
>>>>>
>>>>>   ...but Google suggests "never seem(s) to amaze" is about as common.
>>>>>
>>>>>   http://www.google.com/search?q=never-seize|seizes-to-amaze
>>>>   > http://www.google.com/search?q=never-seem|seems-to-amaze
>>>>
>>>  And in particular "it never seems to amaze me on how...", which I
>>>  can't even figure out what is an eggcorn for.
>>>
>>>  LH
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>-----
>>-Mark Twain
>>
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>
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