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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