Eggcorn

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

I was thinking of FREE not in the sense of 'gratis' but in the same sense of FREE REIGN, that is, 'unrestricted'. I would agree that such a reading is somewhat more figurative, but it seems to me possible (eg, "give free rain to emotions" = 'emote like a heavy rainstorm').

But then I was trained as a literary scholar as well as a linguist. . . .
------Original Message------
From: Arnold Zwicky
Sender: ADS-L
To: ADS-L
ReplyTo: ADS-L
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Eggcorn
Sent: Jul 4, 2009 12:50 PM

On Jul 4, 2009, at 9:43 AM, Larry Horn wrote:

> At 9:31 AM -0700 7/4/09, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>> On Jul 4, 2009, at 9:14 AM, i wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>> but "give free rain" does occur: ...
>>
>> Ron Butters points out (correctly) that it can be hard to say whether
>> these are eggcorns or simple spelling confusions.
>>
> unless the "these" includes free rein/rain/reign chicken, in which at
> least part of what's going on is eggcornish reanalysis.

i meant to refer only to the "give free rain" examples, which i find
hard to explain as eggcorns.

"rain of terror" is a particularly likely eggcornish reanalysis.

arnold

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