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]>wrote:
> Lead on, O King Eternal
>
>
>
> Herb
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Craig Hancock
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 18, 2010 12:09 PM
>
> *To:* [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] <[log in to unmask]>] *On Behalf Of
> *MARLOW, DAVID
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 18, 2010 9:56 AM
> *To:* [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]] On Behalf Of MARLOW, DAVID [
> [log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 18, 2010 9:47 AM
> *To:* [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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