Page 40 - ParentsWorld March 2020 flipbuilder

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To avoid slips of tongue, just

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Slips-of-tongue are speech errors in which words are
pronounced incorrectly or uttered unintentionally

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ttering accidental words when you intend opinion’ becoming ‘unamity of opinion.’ exchange errors
to say something else is commonly referred are double shifts where two linguistic units change places.
to as a slip of the tongue. Slips-of-tongue here, ‘getting your nose remodeled’ becomes ‘getting
uare speech errors in which words are pro- your model renosed,’ and a metathesis error is when two
nounced incorrectly or uttered unintentionally. sounds are switched, each taking the place of the other,
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the founder of psycho- where ‘pus pocket’ will become ‘pos pucket.’
analysis, believed that such slip-ups were truths embed- Omission errors are one of the most common errors
ded in the subconscious mind finding release through of speech — an entire word is replaced while speaking
normal conversation. he posited that what people said fast or under stress. Many politicians are prone to this
but didn’t mean to say are repressed thoughts that speech gaffe. Some famous political slips of tongue have
weren’t meant to be disclosed. this resulted in many slips gone down in history as hilarious faux pas. in 1988, uS
of the tongue being called Freudian slips or parapraxes President ronald reagan, while trying to quote Ameri-
(faulty action). can statesman John Adams who had said, “Facts are
But Freud’s hypothesis explains only a minority of stubborn things,” instead said, “Facts are stupid things.”
speech errors and is somewhat out-dated. latest research interestingly, we are more likely to create an exist-
by cognitive scientist Gary Dell, professor of linguistics ing word (leading), rather than a made-up word (wabbit)
and psychology at the university of illinois at urbana, when we make slip of tongue errors. Also, we are less
contends that slips of tongue are revealing of an individu- likely to invent a word with an odd letter sequence such
al’s capacity to use language and its components. as ‘dlorm’ rather than ‘dorm’. We end up substituting a
there are three types of slips of tongue: sound, mor- word that is related in meaning. thus, the substitution
pheme and word errors. Sound errors occur when word of a word such as ‘table’ for the word ‘up’ or the word
sounds get swapped. thus, instead of saying flower pot, ‘coat’ for the word ‘fire’ is unlikely.
one may say power flot. this is also known as a spooner- to avoid, or at least minimise, slips of tongue, slow
ism. A morpheme error is when morphemes (smallest down while talking or making a speech. Also, practise
meaningful units in language) swap with neighbouring before making a public address.
words. For example, instead of saying ‘he has already
packed two trunks,’ one may end up saying, ‘he has EXErciSE
already packs two trunked.’ in word errors actual words too many slips of tongue here! tell us what you think
get rearranged. For example, ‘i must let the cat out of the they wanted to say:
house’ may become ‘i must let the house out of the cat.’ 1. Smuck in the tid 2. Odd hack 3. Easy enoughly
there are also some additional ways of categorising 4. Turn to tend out 5. The Grand Canyon went to my sister.
these errors. Anticipation error is when an alphabet in 6. You have too many irons in the smoke.
a later word is replaced by another. this would cause
‘reading list’ to be said as ‘leading list.’ Anticipation er- 6. You have too many irons in the fire.
rors are the most common phonological slips. 5. My sister went to the Grand Canyon
A perseveration error is when a later word is mixed 4. Tend to turn out
up with an earlier. For example, one might say ‘box 3. Easily enough 2. Ad hoc
blackses’ instead of ‘black boxes.’ deletion error is when 1. stick in the mud
some linguistic material is left out. like ‘unanimity of Answers

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