[Ads-l] "Substitute it with"?

[Laurence Horn]

> On Apr 12, 2017, at 10:16 PM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
> 
> "Julia confiscates Tzanko's wristwatch, which he calls Glory (it's an heirloom of sorts), and substitutes it with his chintzy digital award."
> 
> From a review of the film of the same name, by Glenn Kenny in the NYT, today (April 12, 2017).
> 
> Awkward at best.  The intended meaning is that Julia takes Tzanko's heirloom (an analog watch) from his wrist and replaces it with the watch (digital) awarded him for a civic good deed.
> 
> 
> Incorrect at worst?  Seems like the direct and indirect objects of "substitute" (if I have the right terms) are reversed.  


The OED is more lenient than you on this; its entry on “reversed ‘substitute’” abjures proscription. See note and cites at sense 3b below:

 3. trans.
 a. To take the place of; to become a replacement for; to supplant; = replace v. 3.This use was often criticized in the early 20th cent., and replace preferred; N.E.D. (1914) comments: ‘Now regarded as incorrect.’ However this use of substitute (particularly in the passive voice) remains common.

 [cites from 1675]

 b. With with (also by, later for). To fill the place of (a person or thing) with a replacement; = replace v. 2b. Use in this sense has been sometimes criticized (as with sense 3a), but is now generally regarded as part of normal standard English.

1839   tr. C. P. de Kock Barber of Paris I. iv. 92,   I carried off a rabbit from the spit, and substituted it with the cat of my old aunt.
1877   L. Davis Strange Occurr. 166   Engelhardt had discharged the boy Franz,..but had substituted him by a larger and more intelligent young man.
1916   Southern Hardware July 39/1   He [sc. man] was a long time getting beyond the pointed stick, and arriving at the point where he substituted it with a crooked limb which he used as a plow.


"Substitute OLD with NEW” (where as you say “substitute” does the work of “replace”) is more frequent than “Substitute OLD for NEW”, but both are widely attested and (according to my data and intuitions) increasingly so among younger speakers.  

LH
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