Point Of Correction: You Can't Eat Your Cake And Have It

Is it "you can't eat your cake and have it" or "you can't have your cake and eat it"? These two expressions have gained debate prominence among enthusiasts of the Queen's. In many academic and intellectual circles, the former expression is often used, though it's traditionally incorrect.

"You can't eat your cake and have it" advisedly is not correct. Yet, its students find it logically pleasing to the ear than its counterpart.

The saying is an idiomatic expression and has no hard fast rules on their usage. Idiomatic expression can't be understood by its grammatical structure - thus analysing the individual words with respect to general rubrics of syntax and other language dynamics.

What is an idiomatic expression?

Idiomatic expression is an expression whose meaning can't be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up. The significance of an idiom has got nothing to do with the words that made it. The most important thing about idiomatic expressions are their origins - how the expressions came into being.

When we say "to rains cats and dogs", I am sure no one in their right senses will actually believe cats and dogs will be falling from the sky. In the same vain, "you can't eat your cake and have it" shouldn't be taken hook, line and sinker on surface value.

There is no juggernaut of idiomatic expressions because they have no rules. To know them, you must learn them raw. Experientially, it's very fatal to try to understand idiomatic expressions on their mere usage in context.

Let me tell you an experience I had when I authored an article for publication on GhanaWeb with the title: "The Ecominiots And The Ecomini Noises". Google it!

In paragraph 3 of that article reads: “These are two of the million good speeches of the Professor whose middle name is English." The Professor here referred to Late President John Evans Mills. Several irate commentators on the article thought "...whose middle name is English" was referring to the "Evans" of John Evans Mills. They gave it to me and described my thinking as puerile.

This article was made to cure the infamous mischief about the late president's tongue slip.

I wrote a rejoinder and descended heavily on these commentators. A portion of the rejoinder article that dealt with the "...whose middle name is English" reads:

'This sentence attracted a lot of comments from people of varying degree of ignorance and low readings. These people refused to think before commenting on this sentence. In fact, I felt very sorry for them. Let us get ready for want I meant by “...whose middle name is English.”

Let us go to the world most trusted reference, Oxford. Kindly refer to Oxford Advance Learner's Dictionary, New 7th Edition (Special-Priced), Page 928, column 2: An idiom under the headword “middle name” reads: “be somebody's middle name (informal) used to say that somebody has a lot of a particular quality: 'Patience is my middle name!'”'

Again, if I say Humour is Sapashini Rasheed's middle name. It doesn't mean that he's officially called Sapashini Humour Rasheed. It means Humour is his hallmark. I can also have a sentence like "The middle name of Aleke is modesty.

Origin of the saying "you can't have your cake and eat it" is quite obscure but early recordings of the expression lend more credence to it than the modern day "you can't eat your cake and have it".

Analysis Of the Expression on Origin

"You can't have your cake and eat it" means you can't both want to have your cake and eat it as well. To eat your cake means you can't have it again. And to have your cake means you can't eat it.

Let me use examples we understand better. You're a virgin but you want to have sex but you still want to be a virgin. You can't be a virgin and have sex. Same as "you want to go to heaven but you don't want to die!"

"You can't have your cake and eat it" can BEST be REPLACED with "you can't have it both ways". The corrupt popular form of the expression doesn't technically convey the exact intent or meaning of what people want to communicate.

You can't eat your cake.....

In modern language, there are two school of students: the traditionalists (conservatives) and the liberalists. The former adhere rigidly to the rubrics of the language regardless of modern dynamics and other necessary evil considerations. And the latter focus attention on comprehension with minimal enforcement of draconian syntax rubrics. Hence, "you can't eat your cake and have it" in some jurisdictions is acceptable. I'm a moderate traditionalist though.

"Last but NOT the least" by several liberalists is deemed correct even though it is very wrong. It's not uncommon to observe its abuse by politicians, public speakers and even academicians. I prefer ever to be a traditionalist at least to be one of the Watchdogs of those who think they can treat English like physics. Lol.

British are largely traditionalist whiles the Americans are liberalist. The recent American Book of Grammar I read said one can use "one another" for an antecedent of two people in a sentence instead of the traditional "each other"! Gosh! Crazy!

Well, we are not talking about traditionalist and liberalist, we are talking about "you can't have your cake and eat it" - illogical it may sound, it's the correct expression!