[Ads-l] early "substitute for" = 'replace with'

[Dan Goncharoff]

Anyone with an hour and a half to devote to the answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51wz67pab2M

DanG

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 4:08 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Sep 21, 2016, at 9:39 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > 1943 Miles Malleson & De Witt Bodeen _Yellow Canary_ (film): Even as I am
> > speaking, a great convoy is nearing its destination. Last night, under
> the
> > cover of the fog, Number Four of the convoy, manned by Fifth Columnists,
> > was substituted for an identical ship manned by a German crew. On board
> are
> > tons of TNT! The crew will abandon ship, and the time fuse will do its
> work!
> >
> > JL
> >
> Looks like a great antedate.  The OED offers this as the only illustration
> of innovative "substitute for" (s.v. substitute, v., 3b), as opposed to the
> many it provides for "substitute(d) by/with":
>
> 1978   Pop. Mech. Oct. 174/1 (advt.)    Corvette winner may substitute
> automobile for $14,000 cash.
>
>  (The gloss for this sense is "To fill the place of (a person or thing)
> with a replacement; = replace v. 2b")
>
> The 1943 passage also considerably antedates the controversial song lyric
> from The Who's "Substitute" (released as single, 1966; Pete Townsend,
> lyrics):
>
> Substitute me for him
> Substitute my coke for gin
> Substitute you for my Mum
> At least I'll get my washing done
>
> --or, if you prefer performance rather than citation mode,
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eswQl-hcvU0.  There's some dispute in the
> literature about whether the instances of "substitute" in the verse
> exemplify the relevant lemma (= 'replace...with') or not, but even if you
> agree with me that they do, that's still well after 1943.
>
> My problem with Jon's cite is that I don't understand it.  Are we sure,
> given the context of the war movie, that it's the ship with a German crew
> that's replacing the original Fifth Columnists' convoy ship and not vice
> versa?  Jon? Anyone?  Weren't the Fifth Columnists on the same bad-guy side
> as the Germans?  Do I need to watch "Yellow Canary" to find out?
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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