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Comment by dfc | Hacker News Reader

The link you posted does not "speak for itself." Can you provide some context for why you posted a link to the least authoratative reference site on the internet? Even if it was the OED I'm not sure I would understand your point.

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> David Pogue can speak for himself

Translation: "I do not agree with David Pogue"

The phrase "speak for" is an idiom and is not meant to be taken literally.

So your link was for the special usage note to the last entry on the page that begins with "sometimes"? Furthermore I have never seen this idiom used when it is preceded by "can."

From the OED:

"speak for yourself: expressing a desire to dissociate oneself from what another has just said or the assumptions behind it."

That looks like a suprisingly terse entry from the oed. I do not think io have eveer seen such a short entry from the oed. How much did you edit and leave out?

How many people put "can" in front of the idiom?

In the OED entry for the verb "speak," there is a sub entry for "to speak for." About half of that is devoted to "speak for yourself," which is what I quoted. It is followed by the typical list of examples.

There was a Simpsons reincarnation joke that used the phrase:

Sideshow Mel: You only live once! Apu: Hey, speak for yourself!

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Simpsons/Season_9#Miracle_o...

How many of the example entries are preceded by "can?"

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