Meaning of snowclone | Babel Free

Definitions

A formulaic phrase that can be customized to fit a variety of contexts.

Equivalents

Examples

“I stumbled upon the site the other day, when I was looking up the origins of the "Im not an X, but I play⟳ one on TV" snowclone.”

“Suddenly snowclone hunters were documenting media usages suggesting that, in space, no one can hear⟳ you belch, bitch, blog, speak⟳, squeak or suck⟳.”

“Regular readers learned there first about snowclones, the basic building blocks of cliches, like⟳ "X is the new Y" or "you don't need⟳ a degree in A to do B."”

“If so, you're being snowed under by snowclones — a category of fill-in-the-blank cliché identified by linguists.”

“When you read⟳ phrases like⟳ these in a newspaper, you've stumbled across a particular type⟳ of cliché: the snowclone.”

“The snowclone is mainstream enough now to appear⟳ in the title of a recently published book: This Is Your Brain on Joy.”

“This shifting to the less-formal contracted form⟳ is consistent with the reference to the film being a playful one, as snowclones in general so often are.”

“The concept of ‘snowclones’ has gained interest⟳ in recent research⟳ on linguistic creativity and in studies of extravagance and expressiveness in language. However, no clear criteria for identifying snowclones have⟳ yet been established[.]”

CEFR level