According to linguist Jean Aitchison, "The finding that word selection errors preserve their part of speech suggest that the latter is an integral part of the word, and tightly attached to it." Likewise, substitutions tend to have the same number of syllables and the same metrical structure – the same pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables – as the intended word or phrase. Malapropisms tend to maintain the part of speech of the originally intended word. įor example, it is not a malapropism to use obtuse instead of acute it is a malapropism to use obtuse when one means abstruse. Malapropisms differ from other kinds of speaking or writing mistakes, such as eggcorns or spoonerisms, as well as the accidental or deliberate production of newly made-up words ( neologisms). This broader definition is sometimes called "classical malapropism", or simply "malapropism". Most definitions, however, include any actual word that is wrongly or accidentally used in place of a similar sounding, correct word. Such errors are sometimes called "Fay–Cutler malapropism", after David Fay and Anne Cutler, who described the occurrence of such errors in ordinary speech. Some scholars include only errors that result from a temporary failure to produce the word which the speaker intended. ĭefinitions differ somewhat in terms of the cause of the error. Distinguishing features Īn instance of speech error is called a malapropism when a word is produced which is nonsensical or ludicrous in context yet similar in sound to what was intended. Though Shakespeare was an earlier writer than Sheridan, "malaprop/malapropism" seems an earlier coinage than "Dogberryism", which is not attested until 1836. The synonymous term "Dogberryism" comes from the 1598 Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing in which the character Dogberry utters many malapropisms to humorous effect. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of "malapropos" in English is from 1630, and the first person known to have used the word "malaprop" specifically in the sense of "a speech error" is Lord Byron in 1814. Sheridan chose her name in humorous reference to the word malapropos, an adjective or adverb meaning "inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase mal à propos (literally "poorly placed"). Malaprop frequently misspeaks (to comic effect) by using words which do not have the meaning that she intends but which sound similar to words that do. Malaprop" in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals. The word "malapropism" (and its earlier form, "malaprop") comes from a character named "Mrs. Malaprop in an 1895 production of The Rivals
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