responding back

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yeah, "responding to you" could suggest romance.

JL

On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 11:03 AM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: responding back
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 10:13 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > David Barnhart wrote:
> > >
> > > I received a message from a "customer service" automatic response to a
> > > query.  In it the machine said "we look forward to responding back to
> you."
> > > Is that idiomatic English?  I don't think I'd use that turn of phrase.
> >
> > Looks like a blend: "We look forward to responding to you" + "We look
> forward to getting back to you"
> > (possibly with the additional influence of "We look forward to calling
> you back.")
>
> "Respond back" is a common redundancy, as is "reply back." And these
> days (esp. in S. Asia) there's also "revert back":
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org