Towards a definition for the category “ Eggcorn ”

Towards a definition for the category

“Eggcorn”

David TuggyILV-Mexico

Pat SchweitermanModerator: The Eggcorn Forum (http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum)

Eggcorns “Eggcorns” introduced on Language

Log 2003. In 2010 the OED accepted the term An Internet-enabled phenomenon: easy

to check for occurrences of a suspected case and to share them with other enthusiasts (eggcornistas) Language Log The Eggcorn Database (incl Forum) Language columnists etc.

Thousands collected. E.g.:

Eggcorns egg corns < acorns voiceterous < boisterous dayview < debut star-craving mad < stark raving mad deformation of character < defamation

… scissorian section < Caesarian section

(a.k.a. sea section) little petty-Annie complaints < penny-

ante in Lehmann’s terms < in layman’s

terms pawnsie scheme < Ponzi scheme That’s gonna cost you a nominal egg <

an arm & a leg

Eggcorns Shared characteristics of these

examples (surprisingly complex): (a) Ǝ an acorn: a widely accepted

(“correct”) standard structure which the perpetrator could reasonably be expected to wish to evoke, and which in any case is evoked in the mind of the analyst. E.g. acorns, stark raving mad, an arm and a

leg, etc.

Eggcorns (b) The perpetrator uses a

signal/signifiant (spoken/written) which evokes, for both perpetrator and analyst, a semantic structure strikingly different from that of the acorn. E.g. the images of an egg and of corn(s) are

evoked by eggcorns but not particularly by acorns.

The analyst sees this as an obvious restructuring of the acorn that restructured word or phrase is the

eggcorn.

Eggcorns (c) The analyst understands the

eggcorn to be an error on the part of the perpetrator.

(d) As implied by (a) and (b), the signifiants of the acorn and the eggcorn are different enough to make it clear that the perpetrator has the eggcorn rather than the acorn in mind.

(e) Nevertheless, the signifiants of the acorn and eggcorn are very similar. They are likely to be difficult to distinguish

on many occasions of use. e.g. [ˈɛgkoɹn] / [ˈeʲgkoɹn] and [ˈeʲkoɹn]

Eggcorns (f) The restructuring makes sense.

An acorn is indeed egg-shaped and corn-like. This restructuring is likely

to make good-enoughsense to communicate in any context where the word acorn would be used.

(Boston Globe stock photo)

Eggcorns [(e) + (f) =] (g) The eggcorn and the

acorn are largely interchangeable. The eggcorn is so similar to the acorn, both in its signifiant or signal and in its overall meaning, that (i) the perpetrator can use it without the

audience (of potential analysts) realizing that the acorn is not being used.

(ii) others can use the acorn without the perpetrator realizing it is not the eggcorn.

Eggcorns Prototypically true and typically

judged relevant: (h) The perpetrator is unaware

that the acorn is standard and that most speakers would use it in this context.

(i) The perpetrator believes that the eggcorn is standard and is unaware of having committed an error.

Eggcorns In the perpetrator’s mind:

Ǝ the Saussurean symbol eggcorn.

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn


Ǝ the Saussurean symbol eggcorn. It is “composed of” (= sanctioned by)

egg and corn.

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn

grows on plantseed

eaten usu.

cooked

etc.can grow into plant

koɹn

esp. maize plant

laid by bird

has white, yolk

eaten cooked etc.

can hatch into chick

ɛg


Ǝ the Saussurean symbol eggcorn. It is “composed of” (= sanctioned by)

egg and corn. This whole

structure isestablishedas standard.

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn

grows on plantseed

eaten usu.

cooked


koɹn

esp. maize plant

laid by bird

has white, yolk

eaten cooked etc.


ɛg

Eggcorns The analyst is aware of all of this as

well (though it is not standard for him/her).

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn

grows on plantseed

eaten usu.

cooked


koɹn

esp. maize plant

laid by bird

has white, yolk

eaten cooked etc.


ɛg

Eggcorns But the analyst also has strongly

entrenched the symbol acorn

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn

grows on plantseed

eaten usu.

cooked


koɹn

esp. maize plant

laid by bird

has white, yolk

eaten cooked etc.


ɛgseed of oak tree

ˈɛj koɹn

Eggcorns Also the analyst is very aware of the

discrepancies between this standard structure (acorn) and the perpetrator’s standard (eggcorn).

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn

grows on plantseed

eaten usu.

cooked


koɹn

esp. maize plant

laid by bird

has white, yolk

eaten cooked etc.


ɛgseed of oak tree

ˈɛj koɹn

Eggcorns The designata (profiled meanings)

are very close; but the phonological structures differ

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn

grows on plantseed

eaten usu.

cooked


koɹn

esp. maize plant

laid by bird

has white, yolk

eaten cooked etc.


ɛgseed of oak tree

ˈɛj koɹn

Eggcorns Overall, then, the eggcorn is seen by

the analyst as a distortion of the acorn.

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn

grows on plantseed

eaten usu.

cooked


koɹn

esp. maize plant

laid by bird

has white, yolk

eaten cooked etc.


ɛgseed of oak tree

ˈɛj koɹn

Eggcorns (An abbreviated way to diagram the

same thing.)

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn

grows on plantseed

eaten usu.

cooked


koɹn

esp. maize plant

seed of oak tree

ˈɛj koɹn

laid by bird

has white, yolk

eaten cooked etc.


ɛg

seed of oak tree

ˈɛj koɹn

seed of oak tree

ˈɛg koɹn

Eggcorns Showing “features” as schemas:

ˈɛˌkoɹn ˈɛgkoɹn

STRUCTURE ESTABLISHED FOR ANALYST

STRUCTURE ESTABLISHED FOR

PERPETRATOR

STRUCTURE ESTABLISHED FOR LANGUAGE USERS

GENERALLY

RELATIONSHIP OF STRIKING SIMILARITY

YET DIFFERENCE

COHERENT STRUCTURE

(i.e. it makes sense)

STRUCTURE UNKNOWN TO PERPETRATOR

(a)

(a)

STRUCTURE PERCEIVED BY

ANALYST

(b)(c) (b)

(d) (e) PAIR OF STRUCTURES INTERCHANGEABLE IN

MOST CONTEXTS without causing major

communication breakdown


ANALYST AS ERRONEOUS

(c)(i)

(f)

(g)

(h)

Eggcorns Abstracting to get linguistic terms:

Y Yˊ



PERPETRATOR


GENERALLY


YET DIFFERENCE

COHERENT STRUCTURE



(a)

(a)


ANALYST

(b)(c) (b)






(c)(i)

(f)

(g)

(h)

X Xˊ

ˈɛgkoɹn

ˈɛˌkoɹn ˈɛgkoɹn



PERPETRATOR


GENERALLY


YET DIFFERENCE

COHERENT STRUCTURE



(a)

(a)


ANALYST

(b)(c) (b)






(c)(i)

(f)

(g)

(h)

Eggcorns and other categories

Eggcorns are usefully compared and contrasted with a number of more-traditional linguistic categories.

Probably the closest one is the category of folk-etymologies.


In a “folk etymology” There once was a standard structure,

the analog of the acorn [(a)], which perpetrators changed into a

similar-sounding structure [(d), (e)] which evokes rather different imagery

[(b)] in order to achieve a similar, functionally

substitutable overall meaning [(g)]. The restructuring must make some kind

of sense [(f)] for this to work very well.


In a “folk etymology” For an analyst for whom the original

structure is standard, this is an error [(c)]

for the perpetrators it is quite standard [(g), (h), (i)],

But in a folk etymology the eggcorn has been so successful as to replace the acorn; thus (a) is no longer fully realized. (e.g. shamefaced, *sham(e)fast)


An eggcorn is an incipient, not-yet-fully-successful

folk etymology.


A “mondegreen” is a reanalysis caused by mishearing (and ignorance).

E.g. “they hae slain the Earl O’Murray and Lady Mondegreen” = and laid him on the green.

The “wild, strange, battlecry of the Light Brigade”:

Haffely, Gaffely!Gaffely, Gonward!

= Half a league, half a league, half a league onward!


Most eggcorns are mondegrenous in their origin.

But most mondegreens are not eggcornical.

Most mondegreens occur only in one very specific context (e.g. only in the poem about the Light Brigade)

Most mondegreens do not make good sense even in their original context. Surely good Mrs. Murphy < Surely

goodness and mercy makes no sense in Ps. 23.


A mondegreen that is standard for its user, makes sense, and is adaptable to

many contexts, is an eggcorn.


A malapropism is “using the wrong word”.

Typically the perp means the right word, just doesn’t realize how it’s pronounced.

Mrs. Malaprop thought allegory meant She didn’t mean

allegory at all. The eggcorn

lady did mean egg and corn.


This is not restructuring. It also does not make sense, if it is taken

seriously: Allegories do not fit even as well as alligators along the banks of the Nile.

Yet eggcorns are, loosely defined, a sub-class of malapropisms.


An eggcorn is a malapropism that makes sense

(and which the perpetrator uses because of that sense).


An eggcorn that the perpetrator is aware of and uses on purpose is a kind of pun.An eggcorn is an inadvertent

yet standard-for-the-user pun

that makes good sense in many contexts.

The OED definition “An alteration of a word or phrase

through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements as a similar-sounding word.”

This fails to distinguish eggcorns from other categories. All mondegreens, and possibly all malapropisms, many puns and other examples of wordplay, would be subclasses of eggcorns.

It’s the other way around!

The OED definition Perhaps instead: “A restructuring, erroneously

considered standard by its user, of a word or phrase [through the mishearing or misinterpretation of one or more of its elements as a similar-sounding word or element], such that the restructured word or phrase makes good sense in most contexts of usage.”

(some more examples the aftermass of the storm <

aftermath another words < in other words in any weight shape or form < way

shape or form cute as I’ll get out < as all get-out learning by wrote < learning by rote wile away the time < while away the

time you’ve got another thing coming <

another think Wholly crap! have you seen … <

Holy crap! do your upmost < do your utmost

Powerpoint to be available at

www.sil.org/~tuggyd

Documents

Towards a definition for the category “ Eggcorn ”