[Ads-l] "unclear of the concept"

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

"bored of" looks like a syntactic blend (from "bored with" + "tired of").
Might "unclear of the concept" somehow also be a blend?

Gerald Cohen

On Sun, Mar 6, 2022, 10:43 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> I would say it's more a case of leveling--not an eggcorn since there's no
> folk-etymological "story" the "of" would be in service to (in service
> of?).  It's something I've noticed over the 70+ years I've been observing
> language, the replacement of other prepositions by "of", the least marked.
> Another example is "bored of", which for me is still "bored with". Some of
> you will have your own examples. I've heard, and probably used, "unclear
> about the concept" as well as "on the concept", but the substitution by
> "of" isn't unexpected.
>
> LH
>
> On Sun, Mar 6, 2022 at 10:37 AM Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
>
> > Here's an instance of "unclear of the concept," where in my ideolect I'd
> > use "unclear *on* the concept."
> >
> > Eggcorn? Variant? What's the defining difference between the two? Is it
> > a reanalysis or a substitution?
> >
> > https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gocomics.com%2Ftheknightlife%2F2022%2F03%2F06&data=04%7C01%7Cgcohen%40MST.EDU%7C1d5552f3d4854f5e5f7908d9ff8c897a%7Ce3fefdbef7e9401ba51a355e01b05a89%7C0%7C0%7C637821801938047427%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=hzUdvNvFcNN7lCwcINjtsDAO5%2BYyq3CZtEQD4mju4jM%3D&reserved=0
> >
> > ---Amy West
> >
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