Buzz
Just a quick reminder: when we call something 'absolutely fascinating,' we're offering high praise. Language nerds are the best, especially those who find joy in questions like: how did 'cockroach' evolve from 'cucaracha'? Or, what exactly is the Signorelli Parapraxis? How about the mystery of colorless green ideas sleeping furiously? Or the oddity of a paraprosdokian? Keep reading for more!
10. Eggcorn
Let’s explore the concept of an eggcorn through some examples:
“That’s mind-blowing!” “My father has Alzheimer’s disease.” “How about a tall glass of skim milk? “I’d love a side of coleslaw with my pulled pork.”
An eggcorn occurs when a word or phrase is altered in pronunciation (or spelling), resulting in a new expression that still somewhat makes sense, but diverges from the original. In the examples above, the speaker has made a 'mistake,' but each eggcorn still has a reasonable meaning. This is what sets eggcorns apart from malapropisms, which are speech errors that sound similar but end up being nonsensical. Take the classic Yogiism (see item six) “Texas has a lot of electrical votes.” This is not an eggcorn because, although it sounds nearly identical, it loses the original meaning of “electoral.” Eggcorns are phonetic near-equivalents, and the listener may not even notice the error.
The word “eggcorn” was introduced by linguist Geoffrey Pullum in 2003. He came up with the term based on an example of a woman who said “egg corn” instead of “acorn” (which, depending on pronunciation, could sound identical), and decided to name the phenomenon after it.
9. Folk Etymology
Folk etymology refers to the process by which a word or phrase evolves into a more familiar form. This usually happens when foreign or unfamiliar terms are altered to resemble more recognizable words. Folk etymology shares a connection with eggcorns, as an eggcorn could eventually become accepted and enter the standard lexicon as a new word.
For instance, the word “cockroach” originates from the Spanish word “cucaracha”; through folk etymology, it was reimagined as a compound word combining “cock” and “roach.” Another example is the term “shamefaced” (simply meaning ashamed), which derives from the now-obsolete “shamefast,” or “stuck in shame.” Other words that have undergone this process include:
Kitty-corner, derived from the mostly obsolete “cater-corner.” Bridegroom, from the Old English “bridgome.” ‘Gome’ was once a term for “man.” Crayfish, originating from the Old French “crevice.” The modern French term is “écrevisse.”
8. Corruption, Barbarism, and Bastardization
Goodness, linguistics, what strong terms you have! These three words describe alterations in language that arise from so-called 'incorrect' language usage. However, linguists typically don't use these terms, as most prefer descriptivism. Descriptivism is the unbiased study of language, focusing on what is actually spoken, rather than what is 'supposed' to be spoken.
In contrast, prescriptivists stick to rules and standards, often believing that one way of speaking is superior to another. A descriptivist would likely consider 'me and him went to the store' as grammatically acceptable due to its widespread use, while a prescriptivist would argue that it’s incorrect and should be ‘he and I went to the store.’
The three terms mentioned are closely related. ‘Barbarism’ is a broad term that refers to any nonstandard word, phrase, or pronunciation; for example, ‘ain’t’ is a common example of barbarism. ‘Corruption’ and ‘bastardization’ describe language changes that happen due to mistakes—such as the word ‘apron,’ which is a corruption of ‘napron’ after people misheard ‘a napron’ as ‘an apron.’ It’s important to note that corruption, barbarism, and bastardization are key drivers of language evolution. If you speak English, you’re effectively speaking a version of all the languages that preceded and shaped it.
7. Hypercorrection
Hypercorrections can be seen as the Descriptivist’s Revenge. It refers to when someone tries so hard to speak correctly that they end up overshooting and making a mistake. A common example is a sentence like “she gave the pizza to my wife and I,” when it should actually be “my wife and me” (and I use ‘should’ here from a prescriptivist standpoint). It’s believed that we’ve come to mistakenly label 'me' as incorrect in these cases due to frequent corrections to phrases like “him and me went to the store.” As a result, some speakers avoid 'me' altogether.
Another frequent offender is the overuse of 'whom.' A typical example would be something like “whom shall I say is calling?” In this case, 'whom' is misused due to a misunderstanding of its function. In reality, the subject of the sentence (the caller) requires the use of 'who.'
An example of hypercorrection specific to British English is “h-adding,” where an unnecessary “h” is added to the beginning of a word that doesn't start with one. For speakers of Cockney, a working-class accent traditionally associated with dropping initial 'h's, this leads to improper 'h-adding' in an attempt to sound more refined.
Hypercorrections, of course, are not limited to English and can be found in every language.
6. Colemanballs
'Colemanballs' refers to verbal slip-ups made by David Coleman, a renowned BBC broadcaster. The term was coined by Private Eye, a UK magazine, and later grew to describe gaffes made by commentators in general. The suffix '-balls' has been humorously appended to various terms, including 'mediaballs' for Private Eye’s column on gaffes. The term traces back to a famous incident when a broadcast went black, and Coleman, unaware of the issue, remarked, 'Trust you to make a balls out of that.'
Some classic examples of 'Colemanballs' from David Coleman himself include:
'That’s the fastest time ever recorded—but it’s still not as quick as the world record.' 'The Republic of China—back in the Olympic Games for the first time.'
There are other well-known figures who have inspired similar terms for their verbal blunders, including Murray Walker's 'Murrayisms,' George W. Bush's 'Bushisms,' and Yogi Berra's 'Yogiisms.'
5. Signorelli Parapraxis
Parapraxis, also known as a Freudian Slip, refers to an unintended mistake made while speaking or acting. The Signorelli Parapraxis is considered the earliest recorded example of such an error, where Sigmund Freud himself tried to recall the name of the renowned painter Signorelli, only to accidentally mention the names of two other painters, Boticelli and Boltraffio, instead. This slip of the tongue is often linked to 'anomic aphasia,' a condition that causes difficulty in recalling names or words. The 'tip-of-the-tongue' (TOT) phenomenon is a familiar experience for many, where a word feels just out of reach. When this becomes a frequent issue, it may develop into anomic aphasia.
Returning to Signorelli, Freud explored this famous parapraxis in his 1901 work The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. He offered an analysis suggesting that several factors contributed to his inability to remember Signorelli’s name, as well as the names he substituted. Among these were an Italian village name (Trafoi), themes of death and sexuality, and the 'Signor' prefix in Signorelli. However, Freud's interpretation has been critiqued, with others proposing different explanations for the causes of parapraxis.
4. Anti-proverb
Anti-proverbs, also referred to as perverbs, are playful variations of traditional proverbs, often crafted to produce humor. There are many ways to twist proverbs, and the essence of an anti-proverb lies in taking a well-known saying and giving it an amusing or unexpected twist.
The term 'perverb' was initially suggested to describe a combination of two proverbs merged into one, much like a portmanteau of full sentences. For example, 'every dog has a silver lining' is a blend of 'every dog has its day' and 'every cloud has a silver lining.' These hybridized proverbs are not arbitrary; they follow a specific pattern that both original proverbs share:
'A fool and his money is a friend indeed.' 'The road to hell is the spice of life.' 'Don’t count your chickens in midstream.'
Anti-proverbs can also take forms beyond simple proverb combinations, such as 'a penny saved is a penny taxed' or 'slaughter is the best medicine.'
3. Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously
“Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” is a famous sentence created by Noam Chomsky to demonstrate the difference between grammatical and semantic correctness. The sentence is grammatically correct, and could be made comprehensible by replacing a few words with another of the same part of speech (for example, “bright green birds sleep noisily”). As it stands, however, the sentence is nonsense—although that hasn’t stopped various linguists from trying to ascribe figurative definitions to certain words in an attempt to make the sentence meaningful (as in “nondescript immature ideas have violent nightmares”).
Chomsky provides the following sentence as a means of further demonstrating his point: “Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.” Here, the sentence is now both semantically and grammatically incorrect. There are two distinct levels of language processing at play here, and both need to be “correct” in order to make sense. It’s important to note, by the way, that Chomsky made explicit the point that when he proposed the two sentences, they were likely to never have been uttered before; on immediate analysis, both sentences would have to be deemed ungrammatical.
2. Paraprosdokian
Paraprosdokians are a type of figurative language that share similarities with garden-path sentences, but with a key difference. While both involve a linguistic 'twist' midway through, paraprosdokians don't typically confuse grammar. Instead, they lead to a surprising or unexpected conclusion, often catching the listener off guard. An iconic example is Henny Youngman’s line, 'Take my wife—please!' which creates humor through the unexpected punchline. Comedians frequently rely on paraprosdokians to keep their audience engaged and uncertain. Here are some more examples:
'I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.' (Groucho Marx) 'I haven’t slept for ten days, because that would be too long.' (Mitch Hedberg) 'If I’m reading this graph correctly, I’d be surprised.' (Stephen Colbert) 'You can always count on Americans to do the right thing... after they have tried everything else.' (Winston Churchill)
1. Garden Path Sentence
A garden path sentence is a type of linguistic misdirection that causes confusion for the reader as the structure of the sentence changes midway through, disrupting comprehension. A well-known example is 'fat people eat accumulates'; if you’ve never seen this before, you might initially interpret it as 'fat people.' When you reach the word 'eat,' the sentence seems grammatically incorrect, until you realize it’s actually 'the fat that people eat accumulates.'
Try to make sense of the following garden path sentences:
'The horse raced past the barn fell.' 'The old man the boat.' 'The government plans to raise taxes were defeated.'
The trick behind garden path sentences often relies on the ambiguity of certain words. For instance, in the examples above, the words 'raced,' 'man,' and 'plans' contribute to the confusion. This type of sentence is frequently found in headlines, which use a condensed writing style known as 'headlinese.' This style omits articles and forms of the verb 'to be.' These ambiguous headlines are called 'crash blossoms' and typically have two possible, grammatically correct interpretations. Here are some examples to test your understanding:
'Eye drops off shelf.' 'The British left waffles on Falklands.' 'Somali tied to militants held on US ship for months.'
