Another think coming

[cimorene]

Listen, people.

It's not "If you think ___, you've got another thing coming". It's "If you think __, you've got another think coming." Get it? See how that works? The word "think" appears in both places! As if to suggest that the approaching think is going to replace the previous think which was in error! See how it even (gasp!) makes sense that way, whereas a "thing" coming in that context is so meaningless as to be completely baffling? [*]

Comments

[copracat]

When has English idiom ever been not baffling?

It wasn't until I had extensive contact with live Americans (not scripted TV Americans) that I ever heard or read 'think' used. Tonight on The Sentinel, Simon said to Jim, "You've got another thing coming" about Jim's belief that he would be readily cleared of suspicion by IA. Simon's accent does not confuse 'ng' and 'nk'. He pronounces his 'g's. (Okay, The Sentinel is not a shining example of correctitude. But it was only hours ago!)

In my experience it's never used in the construction you describe. What you say makes sense, but it's simply not how it's used in the culture I grew up in.

Perhaps they are two different things? Perhaps the one grew out of the other but they are close enough in meaning to be confused?

[copracat]

My culture is Australian with a lot of US and British TV, film and literature.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

The etymologists were suggesting that a confusion of accent was the origin of the divergence/the "thing" form, not that it's a separate occasion of mispronunciation every time it's spoken, so Simon's accent wouldn't have to confuse the two sounds, he would just have to speak a dialect that uses the "thing" form (but in fact the issue is whether the accent would require separate enunciation of two k sounds: think(.)coming. I can't think of any accent offhand that would pronounce it that way outside of deliberate emphasis). The origin would have to have been decades ago at least for the forms to be so close to neck-and-neck in usage as they are today (and for 80% of users of each form to be unaware of the existence of the other!).

I can't really see how they could have separate meanings. How would you parse the significance of the phrase with "thing"? What would it mean that was different from the version with "think"? The beginning of the expression refers to assumptions and doesn't imply anything about objects of any kind.

[pixxers.livejournal.com]

One of us needs to email Rob Halford with this news. Judas Priest has been embarrassing themselves for years.

:D :D :D

My mother gets very worked up when people screw that up. So sometimes I do it on purpose.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

They can hide behind the half of the population who are as WRONG WRONG IRRETRIEVABLY WRONG as them. *delicately dabs away spittle*

I'm a bit torn since I tend to go with the belief that you can't stop language from changing and the job of grammar and dictionaries is to describe, not dictate, and so on. I don't insist on "whom" all the time, for instance. But dammit, when you're talking about a significant difference that contains a change (or loss!) in meaning, I'm going to cling to the meaningful variant even in a losing battle. (It'd have to be losing a lot more severely than 60/40 before I gave up, too!)

[revulo.livejournal.com]

I knew I wasn't alone! lol
But I think this is because we're both Southern XD I swear, I heard "another think coming" first.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

But my childhood best friend who comments below grew up in AL and is of New England/Carolina extraction, and was in the "thing" camp - and had never heard of the alternative. I wonder if instead it's that I imprinted first by seeing it written? The link up there mentions that "think" dominates in (older?) print sources.

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

...Huh. I'd never thought about "thing" failing to make sense in that context. I wasn't even aware that "think" was an option. Color me enlightened!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I think I must have just seen it written first, though I can't remember now. Of course it's normal to take such expressions for granted - they often fail to make sense if you seriously try to parse them.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

OMG, yes! A thousand times yes. This is such a pet peeve of mine. "You've got another thing coming" makes absolutely no fucking sense. GRAWR.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

If I were more bored and didn't have the internet I'd totally be one of those little old ladies clipping out newspaper articles and mailing them back marked over in red ink.

[emilyveinglory.livejournal.com]

It's sense may have worn away but I am going with tradition. :)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

The consensus among experts seems to be that "think" is the original form.

Stays wheres yous at and I'll comes wheres yous be. = I'm coming over.

[hollsh.livejournal.com]

My family is full of east coasters. I'm just amazed I speak english.

Re: Stays wheres yous at and I'll comes wheres yous be. = I'm coming over.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

That could make a cool answering machine message.

Re: Stays wheres yous at and I'll comes wheres yous be. = I'm coming over.

[revulo.livejournal.com]

...your subject line makes perfect sense to me.
I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Thank you! There's very little like this that bothers me, but this? Really bothers me. I've had betas try to correct it to "you've got another thing coming" so often that I no longer use it in my fiction. Drives me wild.

Huh. Who knew I felt that strongly?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, very little gets my back up like people trying to correct me when I'm already right and they're wrong. The presumption! When it's anything to do with grammar I take it as a sign that the sentence was unclear, since it shouldn't be leaving people confused, even if their confusion stems from inadequate grasp of the particulars of language. But there's really nothing you can do with an expression like that except, I suppose, avoid it or be prepared to argue about it. :/

I hope if you ever really want to use it you'll be prepared to fight for truth and justice, though!

[melle.livejournal.com]

arrrrrg, that's like #3 on my most-hated list of examples of grammar anarchy. #1 being "different than" and #2 being "i tried to take a BREATHE but i couldn't BREATH."

*mangles something*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

DIFFERENT THAN.

ölaks¤"&#-asd.

You shouldn't spring that kind of rage on me without warning.

[achiasa.livejournal.com]

...wait, there are people arguing that 'thing' is correct? o.O I've always assumed, when seeing it (on the internet, mostly), that it's either a typo or a lamentable ignorance of grammar coupled with a lack of common sense. It's just... so obviously nonsensical, and while I'm all for usage, there is such a thing as basic logic. I mean, the meaning of the clause is 'you'll think again', so... I'm kind of floored here, really.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

According to the australian copracat the "thing" usage was so widespread in her upbringing that she assumed the "think" one was a mistake due to ignorance (o.O) even though she'd heard of it, and she argues that it might have its own separate grammatical meaning.

[perhael.livejournal.com]

Lol, I don't care what you think - I think "You've got another thing coming" is a perfectly valid expression. If that makes me a moron, then so be it!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I don't know what you can mean by "a perfectly valid expression". It's a grammatical expression; it's an expression that's in widespread use; it's also a semantically nonsensical variant of the original expression from which it derives.

[claire.livejournal.com]

To provide another point of data - grew up in Australia with English parents. Definitely used "think". People using "thing" are wrong ;) Unless they mean "You are so wrong that The Thing is about to stand on your head" which, OK, would be kind of awesome.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

We've got some vehement Australian data points going the other way, so I take it you've definitely encountered it that way? ;)

[mirabella]

Oh my god that drives me absolutely apeshit. APESHIT. I mean, what.

*froths*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

-_- Yes. Although apparently, since English speakers seem to be almost evenly divided between the two usages even among the experts at the Merriam-Webster offices or whatever, I was wrong to perceive it as illiterate. But it just LOOKS so illiterate - replacing a homonym that doesn't make any sense for the key word in an expression! I suppose if the replacement happened a hundred years ago though, I'd be unreasonable to hold modern speakers accountable for the TOTAL COMPLETE LACK OF SENSE-MAKING when they've never seen it the other way.

[schonste.livejournal.com]

What the hell? I have NEVER heard of the phrase "another think coming" in my entire life. o_o

[elfiepike.livejournal.com]

seconded. how can a think be coming? a thing coming, yeah--that makes intuitive sense to me: something is coming that will change what you had thought, some event or, you know, noun will open your eyes! etc etc.

not that this is an expression i'm using in my everyday life, in either case.