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

[Jonathan Lighter]

The Fifth Columnists are a crew of Canadian Nazi sympathizers who've
managed to man a Canadian merchant ship, which will be replaced in the fog
by a German vessel that will be blown up by its actual-Nazi crew, thus
destroying much of the convoy, while the Germans commandeer the Canadian
ship und cargo

Zo zimple!

JL



On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 4:15 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>



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