The English language is a minefield. It’s an obstacle course. It’s full of trips and snares just waiting for the right opportunity to twist our tongues and make us look foolish. There are so many pitfalls when writing and speaking, we’ve even given them names and categorized them. If you don’t believe me, keep reading. We’ll cover just a few in this blog, starting with one of the most notorious (and incidentally, most entertaining): the malapropism.
When we use malapropisms in everyday language, we might refer to them as a “slip of the tongue” when we speak, and sometimes a “slip of the pen” when we write. But malapropisms are really just a little trick of the mind where we replace one word (the right one) with another word (usually one that doesn’t fit at all).
LiteraryDevices.net recently gave the example of a very knowledgeable scientist being referred to as a
“suppository of knowledge”
rather than a repository of knowledge.1
As you can see, malapropisms can be pretty funny, but in real world settings they can also be frustrating. And they can happen to anyone at any time.
It’s true.
You may have even been in a classroom or read a paper where someone may have talked about a very “pacific” issue that for all “intensive purposes” was “supposably” very important.
And this very “specific” issue would have been better presented for all “intents and purposes” if how important it “supposedly” was had been a little clearer without the malapropisms.2
So what can be done to insure an unassuming college student won’t fall into such a trap? Well, at the WRC, we’d like to think we can help. We use techniques that have been developed for about as long as people have been replacing the right word with the wrong one. And studies have found them to be very effective. The one I’d like to focus on today is one that if you’ve visited the writing center, you’ve probably encountered: Reading out loud. It’s a useful tool when combating the verbal minefield.
Of course, this minefield of mistakes and anomalies in our everyday wordification doesn’t stop with malapropisms. Beyond the malapropism is the neologism. And speaking of wordification, that’s exactly the kind of made-up word that would be a neologism.
And then there’s its cousin, the portmanteau. This one is a combination or a blending of words to make a new word. Using this technique, we get words like smog from the combination of smoke and fog. The neologism and the portmanteau are fairly benign compared to the malapropism and some of each are often regularly accepted into the lexicon of the English language.
This doesn’t make the obstacle course any easier to traverse, however.
It’s…it’s inconceivable.
I suppose not, Inigo. Inconceivable in this case is just another malapropism. The word I was thinking of was more along the lines of confusing, bewildering, or perplexing. Unfortunately, with the abundance of these sorts of traps in the English language, it’s not even remotely inconceivable.
With such a treacherous jungle of words to navigate, it’s no wonder writing centers recommend reading out loud. Its benefits include (but are by no means limited to) addressing the issue of malapropisms and other “slips of the pen.”
So if a tutor in the writing center asked you to read out loud, don’t panic or worry about this, and definitely don’t let it stop you from taking advantage of a session at the writing center. If you’re not comfortable with reading out loud, you don’t have to do it. But know that reading aloud is a very useful way to literally hear the tone of your paper (whether it’s too formal or too casual, for example).
Malapropisms and other lower level usage issues aside (though you will be able to hear those better too), you’ll be able to better put yourself in the position of the reader and consider your audience’s needs more carefully.
If you do have the courage to read for your tutor, it helps us out as we act as an active member of your audience giving you our impressions and feedback on such issues as flow, content, clarity, and yes, even word misusage. Together you and your tutor can listen for proper transitions between ideas and any gaps that may need to be filled in your text.3
If you’re curious, and you want to try out this theory, consider going back up to the top of this blog and reading the title out loud. If you missed it the first time, did you catch the malapropism this time? I hope this blog helped, and I hope none of your writing experiences are malevolent in any way. For more fun with language and literature, check out the WRC’s Pinterest and Twitter pages, and for any issues you encounter in the writing process, we can help address and remedy those hiccups from malapropisms to structure and content. Book an appointment today.
Happy writing!
Works Referenced
- net <http://literarydevices.net/malapropism/>
- com <http://www.grammarly.com/blog/2015/8-embarrassing-yet-common-malapropisms/>
- The Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill <http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/reading-aloud/>