The classic of all mondegreens is the song "Mairzy dotes," where the purpose is to figure out what the non-mondegreen text is, and what's interesting about it is that, until the final mondegreen "wooden shoe," the whole lyric depends on laxing of intervocalic /t/ and /d/.
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Hancock
Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Understanding Plain English
I'm not sure if fictional examples would count, but wasn't it Ramona
(Beverly Cleary) who heard "Oh, say can you see by the dawnserly
light?" It has been quite a few years since I read that to my
daughter.
I don't know about anyone else, but I mishear pop lyrics all the time.
Clear articulation isn't always part of the aesthetic. Quite often,
the intended words are a disappointment.
Craig>
Bruce,
>
> You may be on to something. I haven't seen a psychological analysis of
> mondegreens, but the thought raises interesting possibilities. There are
> a few exceptions that I found in the Wikipedia entry, for example, "Scuse
> me while I kiss this guy," from Jimi Henrix' Purple Haze line "Scuse me
> while I kiss the sky." Although even there "this guy" could be your
> phantom individual. The following, though, also from the Wiki entry,
> involves an adjective:
>
>
> * When Bob Dylan<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan> offered
> marijuana<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana> to The
> Beatles<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles>, he was surprised to
> find they had not tried it before; he had misheard the lyric "I can't
> hide" in "I Want to Hold Your
> Hand<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_to_Hold_Your_Hand>" as "I get
> high<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_cannabis#Psychoactive_effects>".[10]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen#cite_note-9>
> Jon Carroll's web site
> http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/mondegreens.shtml has lots of
> examples and some funny columns for anyone who'd like to look into
> mondegreens further.
> Herb
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Webmail bdespain
> Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 8:42 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Understanding Plain English
>
> It seems like the common feature of the mondegreens mentioned is that they
> involve a phantom individual -- someone who exists only in the mind of the
> interpreter and never intended by the author. Is this a coincidence or is
> this feature essential? Are there examples of other such
> misinterpretations that do not involve imaginary creatures?
>
> Bruce
> On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 7:22 PM, STAHLKE, HERBERT F
> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> Lead on, O King Eternal
>
> Herb
>
> ________________________________
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On
> Behalf Of Craig Hancock
> Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 12:09 PM
>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Understanding Plain English
>
> Herb,
> You have me puzzled and deeply curious What's the original for the
> kinky turtle?
> Craig
>
> STAHLKE, HERBERT F wrote:
> Dave,
>
> When I read your first message, my mental editing function was switched
> off, and I read "humor is" as "humorist." I didn't even notice the error
> (mine) at first. It's an interesting case of a mondegreen, the mind
> making sense of something that otherwise doesn't. On ADS-L in the last
> couple of days the example "disaster's own surgeon" came up as an aural
> understanding of spoken "disaster zone surgeon." My favorite mondegreen
> is the hymn title "Lead on, O Kinky Turtle." What makes "humor is" >
> "humorist" interesting is that it makes sense of something that is in fact
> an error, rather than the usual case of simply reanalyzing a well-formed
> string.
>
> For others on the list who may not have run into mondegreens, the term
> comes from a passage that I quote from the Wikipedia entry:
>
>
> The American writer Sylvia
> Wright<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sylvia_Wright&action=edit&redlink=1>
> coined the term<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neologism> mondegreen in her
> essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen," which was published in Harper's
> Magazine<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper%27s_Magazine> in November
> 1954.[3]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen#cite_note-Wright-2> In
> the essay, Wright described how, as a young girl, she misheard the final
> line of the first stanza from the 17th-century
> ballad<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad> "The Bonnie Earl O'
> Murray<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonnie_Earl_O%27_Murray>." She
> wrote:
> When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy's
> Reliques<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliques_of_Ancient_English_Poetry>,
> and one of my favorite poems began, as I remember:
> Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
> Oh, where hae ye been?
> They hae slain the Earl O' Murray,
> And Lady Mondegreen.
>
> The actual fourth line is "And laid him on the green". As Wright explained
> the need for a new term, "The point about what I shall hereafter call
> mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that
> they are better than the original".
>
> I can't say that my misreading was better than the original.
>
> Herb
> ________________________________
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of MARLOW, DAVID
> Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 9:56 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Understanding Plain English
>
> Caught my own typo...
>
> humor is employs
>
> My apologies for not proofing better - particularly when submitting to a
> listserv of grammarians!
>
> D
>
> ________________________________
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of
> MARLOW, DAVID [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
> Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 9:47 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Understanding Plain English
>
> Robert said:
>
> <You are absolutely right that the joke is racist; however, the humor is
> based on an interesting aspect of grammar that Haj Ross called sloppy
> identity.>
>
> I'd suggest the humor is employs sloppy identity, but is based on racism &
> sexism...
> If we changed the original joke to avoid racist & sexist comments, it
> wouldn't get repeated much ...
>
> < Bob Smith calls his boss and says, 'Sir, I will not be coming to work
> today. I'm unwell and experiencing a headache, stomach ache and have pain
> in my legs. I will not be able to report to work today.'
>
> The boss replies, 'You know something, Bob, I really need you today. When
> I feel sick like you do, I go to my wife and suggest we have breakfast at
> the café down the street. That makes everything better and I go to work.
> You try that.'
>
> Two hours later Bob calls again. 'I took your advice and I feel great.
> I'll be at work soon. The café has great food and your wife is a wonderful
> conversationalist.>
>
>
> If we, as teachers and students of grammar, ignore the semantics behind
> our words & focus only on the syntax binding them together, we do our
> constituency a disservice and reinforce traditional and harmful social
> trends.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Dave
>
> David W. Marlow, Ph.D.
>
> Assistant Professor of Linguistics and ESOL
> Vice President/President Elect - Carolina TESOL
> Founder: South Carolina Language & Life Project
>
> University of South Carolina - Upstate
> 800 University Way
> Spartanburg, SC 29303
> 864.503.5849
>
>
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