Not Quite an Eggcorn, but...

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Thu Apr 26 17:20:17 UTC 2007


On Apr 26, 2007, at 10:10 AM, Doug Harris wrote:

> ...
> 'Finally, he had to explain, "I thought you said 'Trainspotting.' I
> thought
> you were going to tell me you're a heroin addict."'

ah, this is a mishearing.  there's a fair literature on such things.
in this case, the hearer's expectations probably played a role in the
misperception.  and i'd guess that the ae originally produced was
raised and tensed, in the direction of e; if the hearer wasn't a
"short-a"-raiser himself, that would have encouraged the misperception.

arnold

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