Storch

A word gift from the Outer Circle (yeah, I'm talking about you, Jojo).

Toe the line

Toe the line

Tow the line?

No, toe the line!

I'm seeing ships

Sailors

Definitely nautical

Nautical?

Rope

Like, heavy rope

A.k.a. lines

That you tow

What about the party line

Tow the party line?

Toe the party line?

Toes on the line

Runners

Athletics

Now I'm thinking Capture the Flag

Toes

Lines

Taunting

No, wait, respecting the line?

Staying behind the line?

Or is it pushing it?

Like pushing the envelope?

The party envelope

A bunch of sailors toeing/towing lines and pushing envelopes

While playing Capture the Flag

I have yet to find an expressions that bears such a wondrous constellation of simultaneous divergence and convergence in associations in people's minds.

Language is not a thing

Canagarajah has a bone to pick with linguistics:

"To begin with, the field treats language as a thing in itself, an objective, identifiable product. The field also gives important to form, treating langauge as a tightly knit structure, neglecting other processes and practices that always accompany communication... Inadequate attention is paid to the way in which various language forms and varieties are embedded in diverse environments, perfectly adequate in their own way for the functions at hand."

--from "Ecology of Global English" (2007)