Slog - Comments on The New Language http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language A friend of mine is a high school English teacher (at a fancy private high school). He came across two amazing malapropisms while grading papers this week. Amazing, because it seems to me, these kids have unwittingly invented some great new expressions. One student wrote, "post dramatic stress" instead of "post traumatic stress" (and no, not on purpose.) This is a great new phrase. Suffered through a histrionic acquaintance's latest trauma recently? Next time they set out to bend your ear just say, " Sorry, I've still got post dramatic stress." Another student wrote "firstable" instead of "first of all."... Copyright 2008 Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:53:26 -0800 Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:38:17 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Jaime-Leigh Brilliant, both of them. Who says there's nothing new under the sun? These are SO going to be incorporated into my vocabulary, like, now.

]]> Jaime-Leigh http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804027 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804027 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:55:36 -0800 Comment by Timothy Wind I think you mean "The fact that Iraq had no connection to al Qaeada is fistable".

]]> Timothy Wind http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804034 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804034 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:03:15 -0800 Comment by Gloria Is this a fancy ... preschool?

]]> Gloria http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804040 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804040 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:11:17 -0800 Comment by Gloria Oh crap, never mind! Irony.

]]> Gloria http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804042 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804042 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:11:51 -0800 Comment by kerri harrop knocking 'em out of the park on ye olde slog today. thanks.

]]> kerri harrop http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804052 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804052 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:17:30 -0800 Comment by infrequent okay, i'm all in favour of these new words. i just don't think i understand firstable well enough to use it properly in a sentence. could someone please provide another example. because, if firstable is a noun, then first would be a verb, right? so in the above example, it shows that the firstable clause should have come before the first sentence, no? am i getting this?

also, Suffered through a histrionic acquaintance’s latest trauma recently? would technically still be a type of post traumatic stress then, wouldn't it? it'd have to be: Suffered through a histrionic acquaintance’s latest drama recently?

]]> infrequent http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804064 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804064 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:24:55 -0800 Comment by SDA in SEA Absolutely. Post dramatic stress describes perfectly what I felt after watching Chris Crocker's recent histrionic video. (Sorry to bring that up again.)

]]> SDA in SEA http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804066 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804066 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:28:04 -0800 Comment by SchoolOfThought Are these invented new expressions brilliant only because they come from the golden pens (or silver lap tops) of fancy private high school kids? What if these kids were in an unfancy urban high school? Just wondering and not trying to create drama or any post drama.

]]> SchoolOfThought http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804067 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804067 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:29:03 -0800 Comment by infrequent ha! post drama! i guess this new term has more meaning online...

]]> infrequent http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804072 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804072 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:31:50 -0800 Comment by anon Friend at UW had lots of nice ones from student essays. One particularly memorable one was "escape goats." I'll never stop getting on a boat and looking for lined-up, life-preserver clad goats.

]]> anon http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804078 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804078 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:34:21 -0800 Comment by kid icarus Holy shit! *Post* drama is brilliant!

]]> kid icarus http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804086 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804086 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:37:29 -0800 Comment by Jaime-Leigh To be fair, I totally missed the bit about it being a fancy private school. I just genuinely find post dramatic stress really funny.

]]> Jaime-Leigh http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804088 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804088 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:38:05 -0800 Comment by kid icarus As in, "I still have post dramatic stress disorder after reading the comments on the 'Making Biking Safer' thread yesterday".

]]> kid icarus http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804091 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804091 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:38:53 -0800 Comment by QuimbyMcF These are great examples of eggcorns (refer to LanguageLog blog here: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/moveabletype/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=2&search=eggcorn). An eggcorn is basically a malapropism that in fact makes sense in context.

]]> QuimbyMcF http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804116 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804116 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:02:18 -0800 Comment by Katelyn @13 For real.

]]> Katelyn http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804120 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804120 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:06:35 -0800 Comment by Iris A student in my seventh grade English class wrote in a quiz that an author had won the "Pullet Surprise". Priceless. Although this was at a regular boring old public school, so I guess it's not as impressive.

]]> Iris http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804130 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804130 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:11:23 -0800 Comment by laterite My peeve: "For all intensive purposes"

]]> laterite http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804166 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804166 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:43:52 -0800 Comment by infrequent some purposes are more intense than others.

]]> infrequent http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804192 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804192 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:58:16 -0800 Comment by Essex firstable = predicate adjective

]]> Essex http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804193 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804193 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:58:30 -0800 Comment by Dougsf Totally mindbottling!

]]> Dougsf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804204 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804204 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:02:32 -0800 Comment by Gomez You know, in public school, your grade would get docked for mispelled words. Maybe my public school wasn't so bad after all....

]]> Gomez http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804218 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804218 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:11:02 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle firstable - that's what first post is.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804271 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804271 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:38:26 -0800 Comment by I Love Languaging! Languaging is galiant!

]]> I Love Languaging! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804301 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804301 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:55:55 -0800 Comment by Erik I had a student who wrote "pre-good" when he meant "pretty good." (Grading his paper, I had to say it out loud a few times before I got the point.)

I like "pre-good" -- good, but maybe not quite good. It's not as brilliant as "pre-Madonna," but I've adopted it all the same.

]]> Erik http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804381 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804381 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:05:56 -0800 Comment by Tim Appelo At the UW English Department faculty office, somebody posted a student essay discussing Shakespeare's view of "this doggy-dog world." (The student was trying to say "dog-eat-dog.")

]]> Tim Appelo http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804531 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_new_language#c804531 Life Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:38:17 -0800