I know in my case (which began this thread), it was a purely typographical
error. I do notice a pattern of typos which only happen when typing, and I
think they often occur precisely as you say - as a result of finger motions.
Think/thing, in this sense, might have as much to do with the fact that both
are keyed with a first finger, and it might well be a matter of which finger
responds to the nerve impulses faster. I'm rambling a bit, but I think it's
worth noting that these kinds of typos happen when typing (as opposed to
writing or speaking), and often, in my experience at least, when 'typing at
the speed of thought.' They're all easy enough to fix with a single
revision, too, which makes me wonder if students are checking their work.
-patty
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of R. Michael Medley (ck)
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2010 8:55 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: think/thing
I apologize for not thinking clearly about the /ng/ (the velar nasal) vs
/k/ (unvoiced velar stop) contrast in "thing" vs. "think."
I still think it is implausible that this error appears so many times in a
Google search because people have intentionally have chosen to use
"think." This has almost nothing to do with semantics--but with the nerve
impulses that are sent to our fingers almost automatically without our
thinking about it. In fact, it is a phenomenon that I would guess more
often occurs in writing than in speaking, and therefore involves our
knowledge of grapho-phonemic correspondences more than purely phonological
issues.
Even in your example (below) a psycholinguistic explanation might be that
the appearance of "think" in the conditional clause is reduplicated in the
main clause--mainly for phonological processing reasons, despite the shift
in category.
"If you think that, you've got another think coming," the nominal use of
"think" is set up by the verb of the conditional and contributes to what
must have originally been a witty expression.
All in all, one of the conclusions that I draw from my experience with
such errors and my understanding of them as psycholinguistic phenomena, is
that I should loosen up a little bit when I run across such errors in
students' papers. If such errors are rampant, then I need to consider one
of two possibilities: (a) this student may have a learning disability of
some kind or (b) I need to teach proof-reading techniques, enforce
practice of such techniques, and give some incentives for students to
proof-read carefully before submitting papers.
R. Michael Medley, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Eastern Mennonite University
1200 Park Road Harrisonburg, VA 22802
Ph: 540-432-4051 Fax: 540-432-4444
************************************
"Understanding and shared meaning, when it occurs, is a small miracle,
brought about by the leap of faith that we call 'communication across
cultures.'" --Claire Kramsch
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