Bird communication and taboo language, all in one strip:
(Hat tip to Victor Steinbok.)
Archive for 2009
Bird rage
August 4, 2009pertain toward
August 3, 2009Caught in a radio interview while I was half asleep: pertain toward where I would say pertain to (dictionaries give to as the appropriate preposition here). I’ve googled up some more examples — maybe 50 relevant ones, for example:
Trust seems to pertain toward your overall (longterm) feelings about someone. On the contrary, you can “believe” someone or something for a single instant or in reference to a specific idea. (link)
Students who wish to apply for any type of financial aid (except merit-based scholarships and non Work-Study student assistant positions) must:
1. be enrolled in classes that pertain toward their degree plan each semester… (link)I have heard the term “dog ear” a few times, and was wondering what exactly is “dog eared” and how does it pertain toward weapons? (link)
Make sure that if you are calling up consumers, you check the “do not call” list and follow the laws and regulations that pertain toward telemarketing. (link — from Donny Lowy, Secrets of Ebay)
My speculation is that some speakers see toward as a more elegant, more serious variant of to, at least in some abstract (rather than motional) uses, and toward might then be encouraged some by the register of pertain.
There are cases where to and toward are both possible, and are close (though not necessarily identical) in meaning, as in relate to/toward [someone].
My search for examples of pertain toward ‘pertain to’ pulled up one somewhat different sort of example, from the “official Gillian Anderson website”, in an interview with the actor Gillian Anderson by Rod Dovlin dated 8/29/97:
QUESTION: So, what have drawn from your past that you’re able to pertain toward your character?
GILLIAN: The ability to pretend. I was a good liar as a child.
This appears to have pertain toward ‘make pertain/pertinent to’, a causativization of intransitive pertain: you’re able to make something from your past pertain to/toward your character.
Causativizations of intransitives are pretty common, though they are often disparaged when people see them as innovations, as in an e-mail exchange initiated by a comment from Peter Sagal (of NPR’s Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me!), who complained about Sarah Palin’s using progress as a transitive verb, as in this excerpt from her resignation speech:
It’s pretty insane – my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with THIS instead of progressing our state now. I know I promised no more “politics as usual,” but THIS isn’t what anyone had in mind for ALASKA.
Phil Resnick googled up some examples from more formal contexts, and Mark Liberman noted that the OED has an entry for transitive progress, with cites, in a variety of contexts, going back to 1780 and continuing through 2002 (plus some usage commentary on the verb).
Transitive pertain to/toward hasn’t made it into the OED, though.
Automatic cleanup
August 3, 2009Over the years, bloggers on Language Log and elsewhere have catalogued ways of avoiding taboo and other offensive vocabulary in print. These range from handcrafted strategies, like circumlocution and euphemism, through a variety of substitution techniques, to partially automated avoidance schemes (straightforward blocking of postings and messages containing the offending items, several types of asterisking schemes, and the like).
Here’s an automated substitution scheme reported by Martin R in a comment on my “bad bingo words” posting:
My son used to hang out in a chatroom where bad language was modified automatically. “Fuck” became “hug”, “fucking” became “hugging”.
To which PaddyK replied:
I like the “hug” filter concept! “If you don’t get your hugging donkey over here right now I’ll hugging kiss you!”
Aside from how silly-sounding the hug substitutes are, and the very real possibility that such substitution could simply invest hug with an obscene aura it didn’t have before, this simple example illustrates some of the (well-known) potential complexities in automated filtering (for some related complexities, see the Language Log postings on automated asterisking in iTunes — for instance, this one).
Here’s the problem: if the filtering routine just does substring replacement, then for fucked and fucking you’ll get huged and huging instead of hugged and hugging. So either the routine has to incorporate some spelling conventions of English, or the dictionary for replacement has to have separate entries for all the forms — a solution that’s probably necessary in any case, to avoid absurdities like replacing the turd of Saturday with something else (or using four asterisks, or blocking the message entirely).
Bad bingo words
August 2, 2009From the annals of taboo avoidance: a blog with a list of words that might be blocked in certain contexts. Such lists are very common, of course, but this one has several amusing features, starting with the fact that it’s a block list for chat rooms for on-line Bingo players. Paddy K, the blogger at Swedish Extravaganza, explains:
As you may know, if you can be bothered to remember pointless details like this, I work in a company that produces online Bingo games. In each Bingo game is a chat, and the chat has a bad language filter. This means that the chat master can decide which inappropriate words will be blocked from appearing in the chat window.
(This list is in English, but there apparently is a Swedish version of the list as well. Hat tip to Victor Steinbok.)
What are the haps
July 30, 2009Thanks to our shout-outs/shouts-out exchange, Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics fame) and I have been going back and forth about his use of language on the site. The first thing to say is that it’s self-aware; he understands that he’s playing with language, and revels in it.
Our exchange started with my noticing one of the headings on the site:
WHAT ARE THE HAPS MY FRIENDS
From the context, I gathered that haps (which was, I think, new to me) was, roughly, ‘happenings’, so that the question conveyed was ‘What’s happenin(g)? What’s goin(g) on? What’s up?’
(I’ll save the punctuational issues — no apostrophe for the vocative “my friends”, no final question mark — for later postings.)
Ryan agreed with my reading. I thought he’d invented haps himself, but what he said was:
The backstory is that I really don’t like the word “blog”, so I wasn’t going to call this little blurb beneath my comic “RYAN’S BLOG O’ THE DAY”. The synonyms for “blog” all sound equally unappealing to me (“internet diary”, etc), and I wanted something that said “Here’s some news that you might find interesting” in a way that was friendly and different – most other comics just say “Newspost” or “Rant”. “What are the haps” (short for “what are the happenings”, “what is going on”, etc) was a phrase I’d heard used semi-ironically (or at least, a phrase I’d never seen used fully sincerely) a few years back, and adding “my friends” to the end gave the phrase a bumpy cadence that I liked.
So I’m hoping it conveys a sort of “Hey! What’s going on, guys?” casual tone to what follows below, as if the title is asking “What’s going on?” and the post below is saying “Hey, here’s what’s new with me!”.
So, lost in the mists of time. But Ryan’s use has been the impetus for the spread of haps all over the net; search on {“what are the haps”} and you’ll get a lot of stuff. Ryan himself was surprised.
There are precedents for haps: props ‘propers, proper respect or recognition’ , in particular.
[Yes, these things are slang and consequently are mostly restricted to certain users, contexts, purposes, and audiences, but so what? I’m not recommending such usages as formal written standard English. I’m not here as an arbiter of taste, but as a reporter on the passing scene.
And, in any case, formal written standard English is a variety with a very small — in comparison to the full collection of varieties of English out there in the world — niche. Granted, a niche with extraordinary social and political significance, but it’s not the world, only a tiny part of it.
(I say this because I get a certain amount of flak when I write about demotic variants.)
(And I am, of course, writing in, mostly, formal written standard English, because that’s what the context calls for.)]
In this particular case, I celebrate the playful and creative deployment of language in Ryan’s cartoons.
The cartoons come with auxiliary material under four headings:
(1) WHAT ARE THE HAPS MY FRIENDS
(2) ADS WOO
(3) GUYS YOU CAN TOTALLY BUY THIS SHIRT I MADE
(4) BIG UPS AND SHOUT OUTS
Heading (1) is what I started with. Heading (2) is over, well, ads; Ryan can’t just do this stuff for free (as the Language Loggers and other linguabloggers do), but needs some source of income. Woo is fascinating on its own.
Heading (3) is more commerce, enlivened by the extension of degree totally into interesting new territory.
And heading (4) has both shouts out and another -s innovation (not Ryan’s, but still recent), ups. Several sites gloss big ups as ‘massive props’, which pleases me a lot.
Inventory of snowclone postings
July 29, 2009Another inventory of postings on Language Log and this blog, this time postings about snowclones — about particular snowclones and their histories, about snowclones in relationship to other phenomena, and so on.
Each posting that refers, in a more than cursory way, to a particular snowclone is entered here with a reference to that snowclone (I might well have missed some). In most cases, the first appearance of a snowclone in the inventory also has a short label (e.g., “Eskimo N” for the Eskimos-and-N-words-for-X snowclone, “The New Y” for “X is the new Y”), which is then used in later references to that snowclone. If a snowclone has been treated in Erin O’Connor’s Snowclone Database, then a reference to the database (in the form “scdb” plus the date of the entry there) also accompanies the first appearance of the snowclone in this inventory.
I’m leaving this posting open for comments, but I ask commenters not to use this space as a way of nominating candidates for snowclonehood (I’ve been overwhelmed by such nominations for about two years now). The scdb has entries for a fair number of examples that haven’t been discussed on Language Log or my blog, and probably will not be; we don’t propose to cover the Big Wide World of Snowclones here. In any case, the scdb provides a (searchable) space to offer such suggestions.
The inventory (through 28 July):
GP, 10/21/03: Bleached conditionals:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000049.html
If Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely have M words for Y. [N and M numbers, X a group name] [Eskimo N] (scdb 5/31/07)
GP, 10/27/03: Phrases for lazy writers in kit form:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000061.html
In space, no one can hear you V. [V a verb] (scdb 7/5/07)
ML, 12/2/03: Clear thinking campaign gives “fogged spectacles a bad name:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000178.html
You (don’t) need a degree in X to do Y.
GP, 1/16/04: Snowclones: lexicographic dating to the second:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000350.html
X is the new Y. [The New Y] (scdb 7/1/07)
GP, 1/18/04: Another snowclone:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000362.html
An Xer shade of Y.
GP, 1/25/04: When did you first hear this pattern?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000383.html
The X that put the Y in(to) Z.
ML, 1/28/04: Snowclones are the dark matter of journalism:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000396.html
X is the dark matter of Y. [Dark Matter] (scdb 12/18/07)
ML, 1/29/04: “I, for one, welcome our new * overlords”:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000399.html
I, for one, welcome our new X overlords. [Our New Overlords] (scdb 5/22/07)
ML, 1/29/04: In Soviet Russia, snowclones overuse you:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000402.html
In X1 you V Y; in X2 Y Vs you. [X1 and X2 placenames] (scdb 5/22/07)
ML, 1/30/04: The memetic phylogeny of “our new * overlords”:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000403.html
[variants of:]
Our New Overlords
ML, 2/6/04: “Snowclone” as a chart R&B song:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000426.html
[about the term snowclone]
ML, 2/21/04: Who is to be master?
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000477.html
No X is too Y to avoid Z. [and variants]
ML, 3/3/04: Expression’s vast varieties:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000530.html
Eskimo N
ML, 3/4/04: The Eskimos, Arabs, Somalis, Carrier .. and English:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000540.html
Eskimo N
ML. 3/18/04: The backpack of it all:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000604.html
The X of it all. [The X of It All]
ML, 3/19/04: Putting the X in Y:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000605.html
We put the X in(to) Y. [Put the X in Y]
ML, 3/24/04: Cuteness:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000634.html
Crunchy X goodness. [Crunchy Goodness]
ML, 3/27/04: X are from Mars, Y are from Venus:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000644.html
X are from Mars, Y are from Venus. [Mars, Venus]
ML, 4/7/04: X nazi:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000722.html
X Nazi [snowclonelet]
ML, 4/25/04: Have X, will travel:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000818.html
Have X will travel. (scdb 7/20/07)
ML, 7/3/04: Not the * I know: Let * be *:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001156.html
Not the X I know.
Let X be X.
ML, 10/21/04: Snowclone sightings:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001580.html
Xs don’t V people.
Will the real X please stand up?
AZ, 11/27/04: Twos and threes:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001673.html
X3.
ML, 12/14/04: Religious syntax:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001718.html
X is a verb [Is a Verb]
(labeled as a snowclone here:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003520.html )
ML, 1/7/05: Homeric objects of desire:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001787.html
Mmm… X. [Simpson’s Mmm]
ML, 1/25/05: * me P and call me *:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001838.html
V me P and call me X. [V Me P And]
ML, 2/27/05: Smart kids:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001932.html
Every schoolboy knows X. [Every Schoolboy]
ML, 3/27/05: Liberalism is the new communism:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002010.html
The New Y [for Y = communism]
AZ, 5/17/05: Once a snowclone, always a snowclone:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002167.html
Once a X, always a X. [Once, Always]
ML, 5/17/05: Antique snowclones:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002170.html
Once, Always
AZ, 5/18/05: The hounds of ADS-L:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002174.html
Once, Always
AZ, 5/21/05: An avalanchlet of snowclones:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002185.html
The X that is Y.
One man’s X is another man’s Y. [One Man’s X]
Color me X. [Color Me]
[comments on:]
Once, Always
The New Y
[vs. cliches with open slots, like:]
The wonderful world of X.
ML, 6/2/05: X-ing outside the Y:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002220.html
X-ing outside the Y. [Outside the Box]
EB, 6/2/05: That’s why they call it X:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002221.html
That’s why they call it X.
ML, 6/3/05: Polysemy in action:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002223.html
That why they call it X.
AZ, 7/3/05: What is this ‘snowclone’ of which you speak?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002285.html
What is this X of which you speak?
AZ, 7/4/05: Documenting snowclones, dating them:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002289.html
[origin and spread of snowclones]
What is this X of which you speak?
ML, 7/14/05: A few players short of a side:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002324.html
A few Xs short/shy of a Y. [A Few Short] (scdb 10/3/07)
ML, 8/2/05: Illustrations:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002374.html
[cartoon of] What is this X of which you speak?
EB, 8/23/05: You can call it X all you want:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002416.html
That’s why they call it X.
ML, 8/31/06: New Orleans is essentially an arm of the Gulf of Mexico:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002439.html
X is essentially Y. [dubious as snowclone]
ML, 9/13/05: Two, three… many prefabricated phrases:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002470.html
Two, three, many Xs.
ML, 9/26/05: Wikipedia on Simpsons words:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002494.html
I, for one, welcome our new X overlords.
Mmm, X.
AZ, 10/12/05: What is this Harvard?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002535.html
What is this X of which you speak?
AZ, 10/12/05: Playing one:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002537.html
Play One, esp.
I’m not X, but/though I play one on TV.
I’m not X, I just play one on TV. (scdb 8/17/07)
AZ, 10/12/05: To snowclone or not to snowclone:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002538.html
To X or not to X. (scdb 8/31/07)
AZ, 10/13/05: Playing one 2:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002541.html
Play One.
AZ, 10/16/05: Playing one 3:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002550.html
Play One.
AZ, 10/18/05: Critical tone for a new snowclone:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002555.html
[playful allusions vs. snowclones proper]
Eye Guy.
AZ, 10/19/05: My big fat Greek snowclone:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002557.html
[playful allusions vs. snowclones proper]
Eye Guy. Shocked Shocked. Holy Batman. vs.
Play One. Big Fat.
AZ, 10/28/05: Is splanchnic just another word for schmuck?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002600.html
Eskimo N
EB, 11/14/05: Snowclone shortening:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002646.html
X eats, drinks, and sleeps Y. [Eat Drink Sleep]
BZ, 11/15/05: Eating, drinking, sleeping snowclones:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002647.html
Eat Drink Sleep [and variants]
BZ, 11/16/05: Eating, drinking, sleeping snowclones, part 2: The early years:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002651.html
Eat Drink Sleep
BZ, 12/5/05: Snowclones hit the big time:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002691.html
[from Danyel Fisher, http://drzaius.ics.uci.edu/blogs/danyelf/archives/000057.html%5D
X, the hidden epidemic.
X, the second-oldest profession.
X considered harmful.
ML, 2/4/06: The proper treatment of snowclones in ordinary English:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002806.html
[discussion of playful allusions vs. snowclones proper; reference to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_snowclones%5D
The proper treatment of X in Y.
AZ, 2/20/06: Not your mother’s snowclone:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002856.html
Not your R’s X. [R a kin term]
BZ, 2/25/06: No snowclone left behind:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002877.html
No X left behind.
We are all X now.
ML, 3/1/06: Crazy talk:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002889.html
X is crazy talk.
BZ, 3/2/06: Tracking snowclones is hard. Let’s go shopping:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002892.html
X is hard. Let’s go shopping! [Hard Shopping] (scdb 2/19/08)
also: BZ, 3/11/06: A pirated Barbie-ism:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002919.html
[snowclone database 2/19/08]
ML, 3/3/06: The entire United States wept:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002895.html
[links to collections of snowclones]
ML, 3/5/06: Noclone:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002898.html
An X is someone who knows the Y of everything and the Z of nothing.
ML, 3/7/06: The agenbite of Onion wit:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002903.html
[semi-snowclones]
ML, 3/7/06: Brokeback generalizations:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002904.html
Brokeback X
ML, 3/9/06: Respect:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002910.html
[BZ comment on] Best. X. Ever.
AZ, 3/9/06: More brokeback generalizations:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002913.html
Brokeback X [arguing that this is just allusion and semantic extension]
ML, 3/10/06: Best. Snowclone. Evar:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002914.html
Best X Evar.
BZ, 3/11/06: A pirated Barbie-ism:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002919.html
Hard Shopping
ML, 3/13/06: X-back Mountain:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002922.html
X-back Mountain.
AZ, 3/13/06: Snowclone Mountain?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002924.html
X-back Mountain. [arguing it’s just playful allusion]
ML, 3/17/06: It’s not hard out here for a cliche:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002936.html
It’s hard out (t)here for a X. [Hard Out]
ML, 3/19/06: Not nearly hard enough:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002945.html
[cartoon on] It’s hard out here for a X. [Hard Out]
EB, 3/21/06: How’s this for ambiguity?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002946.html
[variant of] It’s X’s world, we just live in it.
ML, 3/21/06: It’s X’s world, we just live in it:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002947.html
It’s X’s world, we just live in it. [X a personal name] [X’s World]
AZ, 3/23/06: I found my snowclone in Palo Alto:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002953.html
I left my X in San Francisco. [and other variants]
AZ, 4/18/06: All that and talk about Fight Club:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003037.html
The first rule of X is that you do not/don’t talk about X. [First Rule]
Be all that and a X. [Be All That And]
ML, 6/6/06: Springtime for snowclones:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003229.html
It’s springtime for X, and…
GP, 7/9/06: Snowclones of linguification:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003336.html
Can’t even spell/pronounce W.
Not know the meaning of W.
W isn’t in X’s dictionary/vocabulary.
W is not in L.
W is X’s middle name.
W and V are (not) found in the same U.
Look up W in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of X.
Hate the word W.
Not know the name of X.
Hear the word W and reach for one’s N.
ML, 7/28/06: X as the Y of Z:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003394.html
X as the Y of Z. (scdb 12/18/07, 12/30/08)
AZ, 8/4/06: Who died and made you the king of snowclones?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003416.html
Who died and made you X? [Who Died?]
GP, 8/29/06: Science is… a verb??:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003520.html
X is a verb [Is a Verb]
ML, 9/17/06: David Brooks, neuroendocrinologist:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003586.html
X Is Destiny
AZ, 11/11/06: Fully awesome!:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003764.html
The New Y
AZ, 11/11/06: Unblogged snowclones:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003765.html
[21 previously unblogged snowclones (or whatever), plus The New Y]
Now if you will excuse me I have a X to Y
I’m from X and I’m here to help (you)
not the Xest Y in the Z (scdb 10/3/07)
Don’t X me because I’m Y
X-y McXerson
Hardly/Not a X goes by without Y
We don’t need no stinking/stinkin’/steenkin’ Xs (scdb 7/27/07)
If that’s X, every Y should be so lucky
Yes, Virginia, [mildly improbable statement is true] (scdb 10/12/07)
X does not a Y make
X-lorn
X gone wild
Take X and shove/stick it
There’s a lot we don’t know about X
As a X, N is a great Y
Busier than a X [someplace]
That’s not a X; this is a X (scdb 9/18/07)
N is the M of X
There’s no rest for the X
Whatever Vs your X (scdb 12/10/07)
X me no Ys (scdb 9/18/07)
ML, 11/12/06: Be a famous footnote:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003767.html
Our New Overlords
ML, 11/12/06: Prancing about with Jack McConnells pants on your head does not a news story make:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003768.html
X does not a Y make [Does Not A]
ML, 11/19/06: Fomite: panacea or backformation?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003790.html
X: panacea or Y?
ML, 11/21/06: Snowclones in the New Scientist:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003801.html
Mother of all Xs [Mother of All]
HH, 12/3/06: Art, arts, arting, arted:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003856.html
Is a Verb
AZ, 12/21/06: Bad lingo:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003948.html
Best. X. Ever., X-y Goodness, Makes My Y Bleed, X-gasm, The New Y
AZ, 12/28/06: A little more of The New Y:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003977.html
The New Y
BZ, 12/28/06: On the trail of “the new black” (and “the navy blue”):
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003981.html
The New Y
AZ, 1/18/07: A full year of The New Y:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004059.html
The New Y
AZ, 1/20/07: Zippy on formulaic language:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004070.html
X3, Proportional Analogy (X is to Y as Z is to W), Are we X yet?
ML, 1/21/07: Doing meta: from meta-language to meta-clippy:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004073.html
Anything You Can Do
ML, 1/22/07: X ist das neues Y:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004080.html
The New Y
ML, 3/20/07: Snowclones for Jesus:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004322.html
X for Jesus
ML, 4/6/07: All X and no Y:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004375.html
All X and No Y
AZ, 4/16/07: X’s X:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004411.html
X’s X
BZ, 4/18/07: Poignant snowclone of the week:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004420.html
We Are All X Now
HH, 6/25/07: Cheeseclones!:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004644.html
Eskimo N [French names for cheese]
ML, 6/27/07: Snowclone of the day:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004654.html
variant of Eskimo N
ML, 7/3/07: Considered harmful:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004675.html
Considered harmful
AZ, 7/14/07: Negative is the new positive:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004717.html
Are we X yet?, The New Y
ML, 7/24/07: Men are from …:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004744.html
Men are from X, women are from Y
ML, 8/10/07: I am X, hear me Y:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004811.html
I Am X Hear Me Y (scdb 8/10/07)
AZ, 8/11/07: Yet another snowclone omnibus:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004818.html
27 snowclones since the last omnibus, including some from LLog postings (above), plus a cartoon on The New Y:
It’s X, Jim, but not as we know it.
X is to Y what Z is to Q [Proportional Analogy, #4070]
X is to Y what Z is to Y
I’m in ur Noun V-ing your Noun (scdb 10/19/07)
Save a X, ride a Y (scdb 7/13/07)
Sufficient unto the X is the Y thereof
You can’t X your Y and Z it too
Pimp my X
Stupid X tricks
If X are outlawed, only outlaws will have X [Outlaw]
A watched X never Ys
The once and future X
Nothing says X like Y
X: panacea or Y? [#3790]
Men are from X, women are from Y [#4744]
Are we X yet? [#4717, #4070]
The X from hell
X City
As X falls, so falls X Falls
X for Jesus [#4322]
X’s X [#4411]
Step away from the X
various lolcat snowclones [#4442, 4485, 4500, 4507, 4508]
various Mc- formulas
X considered harmful [#4675]
I am X, hear me Y [#4811]
He may be a X but he’s our X
ML, 8/25/07: “X and its enemies”:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004851.html
X and its enemies, X and its discontents
BZ. 9/17/07: Snowclone collectors, call your offices:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004921.html
X, call your office
ML, 9/22/07: Ask Language Log: On a scale from one to snowclone:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004944.html
On a scale from one to X
AZ, 9/23/07: On the fringes of snowclonia:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004949.html
X, call your office
[playful allusions:
Unsafe P any X
A child’s garden of Xs
and others]
On a scale from one to X
From X’s lips/mouth to God’s ear [God’s Ear]
Who are you and what have you done with X? [Body Snatcher]
ML, 10/27/07: That didn’t take long:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005066.html
riffs on: I Am America (And So Can You!)
GP, 10/31/07: And so can you (be):
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005075.html
riffs on: I Am America (And So Can You!)
AZ, 10/31/07: I am neither America nor a snowclone:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005078.html
reply to previous two postings
AZ, 11/3/07: More Colbert:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005084.html
further explanation
AZ, 12/16/07: What have you done with God’s ear?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005226.html
Body Snatcher, God’s Ear
AZ, 12/17/07: It’s not just to God’s ear(s):
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005232.html
God’s Ear
AZ, 3/13/08: Zippy snow(clone):
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005454.html
Outlaw
ML, 3/25/08: X as the Y of Z, again:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005495.html
X as the Y of Z
AZ, 5/30/08: Zits roundup:
God’s Ear
ML, 6/9/08: Snowclone watch:
Happens In, Stays In
[see http://www.joshmillard.com/2008/06/10/what-happens-in-metafilter/ ]
AZ, 6/24/08: Are we snowcloning yet?:
Are We X Yet?
AZ, 9/26/08: Cartoon linguification:
“not know the meaning of X”
AZ, 10/19/08: Giveth and taketh:
GivethTaketh
ML, 11/5/08: Obama is the Y of Z:
X as the Y of Z
AZ, 12/11/08: Gay day (and virgins):
Day Without X, call in X, stage an X-out, [snowclonelet] X virgin
AZ, 12/14/08: More virgins:
X virgin
BZ, 12/20/08: The Rosa Parks of blogs:
X is the Y of Z
BZ, 1/13/09: Consider the X:
Consider the X
ML, 1/28/09: ‘No word for X’ archive:
inventory of postings on the No Word for X meme
ML, 2/16/09: Progress and its enemies:
X and Its Ys [variations on Civilization and Its Discontents, etc.]
ML, 2/24/09: Snowclone of the day:
X-ready [just playful allusion?]
X fag, X porn, X queen, X rage, X virgin, X whore
[more in comments: X hag, X fairy]
AZ, 4/4/09: All the Y of a Z:
X requires all the Y of a Z
BZ, 4/4/09: X is the Y of Z: pop music edition:
X as the Y of Z
The Whole X
AZ, 4/11/09: Snowclidioms?:
The Whole X
Fold Like a Cheap X
Are We X Yet?
BZ, 6/30/09: Doing stupid:
[in comment from BZ] I don’t do X [X noun or adjective]
possible snowclonish joke templates
A word for it
July 29, 2009Zippy (once again) reflects on vocabulary:
The idea that everything has a name is widespread, but seriously mistaken, even if it’s understood as the claim that somewhere, at some time, someone has had a name specifically for the referent in question. If this were so, then little contests for suggesting words for things would have little point, but in fact they’re very popular, and only rarely do they unearth already existing words (even then, they tend to be nonce creations or expressions used only within a small circle of acquaintances).
When it turns out that there is, in some sense, a name specifically for this referent, that name is not an ordinary language expression, but a technical term in some domain, and of course it’s not widely known (otherwise, why would people be asking about it?). That means that words like aglet are interesting in an abstract sort of way, but not of much use in daily life, outside of discussions of shoelaces, shoes, and the like — and even there, unless you’re talking to people who are experienced in this domain, you’re going to have to explain the word.
Then there’s Griffy’s offering, “little plastic shoelace thingy”, which is not a name — not any sort of fixed expression — but a (rough) description of the referent.
When I talked about “having words/names for things” on Language Log some time ago, I restricted the discussion to “ordinary-language fixed expressions of some currency”, which is what people are really interested in when they ask whether a language has or doesn’t have a word for something.
signature dish
July 27, 2009Letting some cooking television go past me a few days ago, I wondered about the “foodie talk” expression signature dish, for a recipe associated with a particular chef or restaurant (or even city, region, or country) — an upscale variant of chef’s/house/local specialty.