Interesting questions. Do they pronounce "blasé" with two syllables or as if it has a silent e? The chock/chalk confusion may arise from a sound change, the a/aw merger that is found in a band about 100 miles north to south from about Pittsburg west to the Mississippi and then everywhere west of the Mississippi north of a line from about St. Louis to El Paso. These speakers pronounce "cot" and "caught" with the same vowels, which, depending on area, may be either both /a/ or both /aw/. There was until recently a store in here in Muncie called "The Muncie Hawk Shop". At first I thought it was a similar confusion of "hawk" and "hock" until I spoke to the owner and learned that it was intentional. Because he had an earlier felony conviction he could not be bonded and therefore could not get a pawnbroker's license, so instead he opened a buy-sell shop. By spelling the word "hawk", which this area pronounces the same as "hock", he was able both to be within the law and to given the impression of functioning as a "hock shop".
Another widely used form of a different sort is "hone in on" for "home in on". The Merriam Webster Dictionary of English Usage dates this usage to 1978, citing it in a primary campaign speech by George H. W. Bush. I have since found it in such places as the New York Times Magazine. I still reject it in student writing, which is, I fear, every bit as pedantic and tendentious as rejecting "most unique".
Herb
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From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda DiDesidero
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2006 8:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Question: Language change and malapropism
The discussion of the broadening of the meaning of 'unique' is interesting, but I see a different problem that I might call widespread malapropism.
My students often create terms or use them as malapropisms--and these may be derived from rap music or these may have their roots in Microsoft Word's spell-checker. Does anyone else know anything more about this?
One frequently occurring example is the word 'blase' to mean "bla-bla-bla" or 'yadayadayada". My students will actually say: "blase blase blase" thinking that it is equivalent to these other terms. So when this phrase enters widespread use, can we say that the meaning of 'blase' has altered? (even though most students who use it in this context do not know that they have altered a meaning; they think they have learned a new word.)
The other phenomenon has to do with what we might call homonyms, such as:
'chock it up to experience'
"she was a pre-madonna"
While these examples are clearly homonyms--and you think that the person had heard the phrase and has just spelled it incorrectly, perhaps with the aid of a spell-checker--they really do express concepts that are fundamentally different from the ones they mimic.
Chalking it up to experience is different than chocking it up (or chucking it up) to experience.
A prima donna is a different concept than a pre-Madonna, even though they both involve females.
Any thoughts?
Linda DiDesidero
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