"off of" = "on"

[Joel S. Berson]

Thanks, Ben.  I did search the archives for String = "off of", and
found 205 matches.  As you might imagine, I didn't look further down
that road.

When I then searched for "off of" in "Subject contains", I found
*zero* matches, so I gave up.  I have no idea why I got zero then;
when I tried again just now, I got 15 matches, a reasonable number to
be expected to research.  Although most seem to be about Arnold's
second issue, plain "off" in alternation with "off of".  Arnold has
only one short paragraph on the "based off [of]/on" alternation; is
it worth more discussion 7 years later?

I didn't try adding "based", because I supposed that "off of" (=
"on") could occur in conjunction with other, similar verbs.  Does it?

Joel


At 7/26/2013 10:59 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 10:32 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> >  From an AP dispatch, seen on Yahoo News, about the splattered splash
> > of green paint on the Lincoln Memorial:
> >
> > ' Capt. Steven Booker says the paint spill "appears intentional based
> > off of the splatter." '
>
>Something we've discussed before...
>
>http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0605E&L=ADS-L&P=R284
>
>--bgz
>
>--
>Ben Zimmer
>http://benzimmer.com/
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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