It's Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use and Abuse of Cliches

249 Pages·2014·0.91 MB·English

by  Orin Hargraves

It’s Been Said Before

It’s Been Said Before
A Guide to the Use and Abuse of Clichés
Orin Hargraves
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hargraves, Orin.
It’s been said before : a guide to the use and abuse of clichés / Orin Hargraves.
pages cm
Summary: “This book provides a concise and lively guide to the most abused phrases
in the English language today”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-19-931573-4 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-19-931574-1 (ebook)—
ISBN 978-0-19-931575-8 (ebook) 
1. Clichés. 2. English language—Terms and phrases. 3. English language—Usage.
4. English language—Humor. I. Title.
PE1442.H37 2014
428'.1—dc23 2013047098
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
This book is dedicated to my mother, Barbara Magness,
whose unwavering belief in me has been
a foundation of every good thing I have done.

Acknowledgments
Many conversations with friends and colleagues over the past couple of
years have been helpful to me in writing this book, especially those that
took place at the University of Colorado where I have a day job. In particular
I would like to thank Steve Bethard, Jim Martin, Martha Palmer, and Will
Styler. I am also grateful to my colleagues Paul Cook of the University of
Melbourne and Graeme Hirst of the University of Toronto for fruitful ex-
changes. Hallie Stebbins, my editor at OUP, made useful suggestions that
greatly improved the first draft of the manuscript.
The research for the book, which I believe has turned up hundreds of in-
teresting facts about what people do with clichés, would have involved
effort far beyond what one mortal could achieve in a lifetime if not for
Sketch Engine, the software developed by my friend and colleague Adam
Kilgarriff for querying corpora. I—and every lexicographer who has had the
benefit of using Sketch Engine—owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Finally I
would like to thank the many lexicographers whose kindness, camaraderie,
enthusiasm, and dedication have been an inspiration to me since I began
investigating the behavior of words many years ago: particularly Faye
Carney, David Jost, Sidney Landau, and Erin McKean.

Contents
Introduction xi
1. What Is a Cliché? 3
2. Clichés That Name Things 20
3. Adjectival and Quantifying Clichés 63
4. Adverbial Clichés 89
5. Predicate Clichés 112
6. Framing Devices 164
7. Modifier Fatigue 186
8. Clichés in Tandem 208
Afterthoughts 215
Index 223