Comments on: Cognitive Dissidence

By: The Hollosphere » Blog Archive » Blog. Blog? Wake up, Blog!

The Hollosphere » Blog Archive » Blog. Blog? Wake up, Blog! — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:19:11 +0000

[...] including mangling English words and phrases in order to make myself, and perhaps others, laugh. This article had me giggling this [...]

By: tacitus

tacitus — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 06:23:34 +0000

If only the worst damage the current CinC had inflicted on this, or any other country, had been the word “misunderestimate”.

By: citrine

citrine — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 02:37:37 +0000

The current commando in cheek’s malapropisms should provide plenty of fodder for the site.

By: PK

PK — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 18:03:40 +0000

John Ramsden, your link is broken. FYI, the rules are the same in both US and UK English (and I sincerely hope you do not put a comma before “that”! ). Anyway, this is not really cognitive dissidence.

I have a Dutch one: we have the expression “a law of Medes and Persians”, which denotes a law that cannot be broken (after the ). In Dutch it is een wet van Meden en Perzen. As a child, a friend of mine thought it was een wet van meten en persen, which sounds the same but means “a law of measuring and squeezing”.

By: Derek Slater

Derek Slater — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:34:34 +0000

John R - Thanks, I wasn’t clear on to which which that that Mike was referring.

By: MedallionOfFerret

MedallionOfFerret — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:29:56 +0000

What you’d expect at Comic Variance,eh wot?

By: Ahcuah

Ahcuah — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:23:45 +0000

That was “offal”.

By: John Ramsden

John Ramsden — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:43:07 +0000

Mike
>
> Let me go off on a tangent, and comment on a misuse of the English language that I have seen in every scientific paper that I have read (after learning about the distinction), which is the use of “which” when one should use “that.”

Huh?! That’s a new one on me - I use them interchangeably depending on how the words flow and avoiding repetitions of “that”. A quick web search turned up http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoVwhVt.asp, and I presume (not “assume” *g*) you’re referring to Rule 2. But for me no more than the comma is required to distinguish a supplementary clause from a qualifying clause. I guess it must be another of those US/Brit tomarto/tomayto things!

On the subject of word play, I have a book somewhere with a couple of dozen Latin-English homonyms, such as “Caesar adsum iam forte. Pompey ad erat” (”Caesar had some jam for tea; Pompey had a rat”).

By: Markk

Markk — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:53:23 +0000

The thing is, “free reign”, “ferment trouble”, “In the mist of” all seem to be pretty good metaphors to me. Good mutations that might have a long life!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:59:47 +0000

… they got off Scott free (or Scotch free).

By: jackd

jackd — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:29:11 +0000

And what do the Powers to Be say about it?

By: rusell

rusell — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:40:19 +0000

Boy, I can’t believe my ice…

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:24:13 +0000

Let me go off on a tangent, and comment on a misuse of the English language that I have seen in every scientific paper that I have read (after learning about the distinction), which is the use of “which” when one should use “that.”

By: JimV

JimV — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:12:43 +0000

Now I know why you call yourselves Comic Variance.

(Good job.)

By: smm

smm — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:10:23 +0000

my favorite: a friend told me that, “It would be who of

By: Martin La Belle

Martin La Belle — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:27:20 +0000

Very clever. It is a shame how few Americans can express themselves well.

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By: Lee Kottner

Lee Kottner — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:45:15 +0000

Oh no. Now I know where Spider Robinson gets all malaprops and puns from. Your post sounded frightening like some of his prose.

By: Sili

Sili — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:35:37 +0000

*give up the goat.

By: Sili

Sili — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:34:22 +0000

It really gets my goat how small the blogosphere is. I think of my interests as relatively diverse, but yet they keep getting connected by links and commenters.

It’s enough to make you give of the goat.

By: tacitus

tacitus — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:12:37 +0000

Those examples you site? Its a mute point, but their doesn’t seam to be much anyone can be done about they’re proflagration around the Internets.