Breaking the Lockjam and Buttoning Down the Hatches

Breaking the Lockjam and Buttoning Down the Hatches Breaking the Lockjam and Buttoning Down the Hatches Breaking the Lockjam and Buttoning Down the Hatches By Maeve Maddox The President has invited some factions to Washington to break the lockjam. The copywriter who came up with this statement confused two common English expressions used to convey a state of of inaction: deadlock and logjam. The term deadlock refers to a stoppage brought about by the opposition of two forces, neither of which will budge. The term logjam comes from the practice of floating newly-cut trees (logs) down a river. When several logs become so crowded they can no longer move, the result is a logjam. I understand such idiomatic confusion in the speech of someone speaking off the cuff. We all come out with mixed-up speech from time to time, especially when were surprised or nervous. My examples are not from people responding to impromptu interview questions. They come from newspaper stories and the words of professional announcers or scriptwriters. I see the tendency to conflate idioms in this way as a result of limited reading. Others may disagree, seeing it instead as innovation, the deliberate altering of old expressions to avoid clichà ©. It may be the lattersome of the time. Idioms are something that have to be absorbed from immersion in the language. My own language patterns were set when English teachers corrected their students grammar every time they opened their mouths, and assigned book reports and summer reading. Back then, movie and radio scripts were written by men and women who observed not only pronoun case, but the subjunctive mood of verbs! Somewhere theres a growing disconnect between the usual sources of idiomatic language and the people who write for the media. I think that it is a problem and that the solution is close reading of the best authors. Here are some more examples: They took it in good stride. The context was a news story about a group that was dealing with disappointment. The two expressions mingled here are to take something in stride and to take something in good part. Both have the sense of dealing with something without making a fuss. if other airlines join suit and raise their fares. This is from a news story. The altered expression is to follow suit. It is an expression taken from a card game. One player leads with a heart and the next one must follow suit by putting down another heart. guess well have to button down the hatches. This was spoken by a Fox anchorman talking about a coming storm in Florida. The expression is to batten down the hatches. It refers to the act of nailing lengths of wood (battens) across trapdoors in a ships deck so they wont open during a storm. We use it in the sense of securing things before a storm, either a real storm or a metaphorical one. The present participle form is battening. Deliberately altering a familiar idiom for effect is one thing. The result can be witty and entertaining. Mixing them up out of ignorance is something to be avoided. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Program vs. ProgrammeThe Difference Between "will" and "shall"20 Ways to Laugh