For Fall 2024, corporate grey is the new black according to the fashion world. This phrase appeared in the 1960s when Gloria Vanderbilt stated that, “pink is the new black” while traveling to India. You probably know this phrase, but you might not know it’s called a snowclone.
The term snowclone came from a contest. Linguist Geoffrey Pullum decided that the English language needed a word for, “a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different jokey variants by lazy journalists and writers.” Pullum posted a request for names and gave this example: “If Eskimos have dozens of words for snow, Germans have as many for bureaucracy” or “If Eskimos have N of words for snow, X have Y for Z.” Economics professor Glen Whitman played off the snow example and won with the word “snowclone.”
Here are some popular snowclones:
- “The mother of all X” as in “Necessity is the mother of all invention.”
- “To X or not to X” as in “To be or not to be” from Shakespeare.
- “X. X Y” as in “Bond. James Bond.”
Linguistically, snowclones are a class of partially filled constructions that must be:
- A culturally salient template with one or more variable slots (X, Y, etc.).
- Productive. They should express current ideas by swapping out the variables.
- Extravagant. They are clever and effective.
Snowclones vs. cliches: A cliche, such as “better late than never,” is also a unique way of expressing an idea but gets old over time. A snowclone has exchangeable variables that leave room to express the latest ideas or trends creatively.
Fun Fact: Eskimos having many words for snow is a hoax. There are about four or five snow roots in the languages of the Yup’iks and Inuits, similar to the number found in English (ex: snow, sleet, slush, blizzard).
Read More:
Hartmann S., Ungerer T. “Attack of the snowclones: A corpus-based analysis of extravagant formulaic patterns.” Journal of Linguistics. Published online 2023:1-36. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226723000117.
Pullum, Geoffrey K. 2003a. Bleached conditionals. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/arch ives/000049.html.
Pullum, Geoffrey K. 2003b. Phrases for lazy writers in kit form. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/langua gelog/archives/000061.html.