typos

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

i just wrote about the "original broadway case" -- intending "cast",
of course.  so what kind of typo is that?

well, it could be a finger misfire, getting E instead of T (two keys
away).  or it could be a "completion error", in which, having typed
CAS, i went on to complete it as the very frequent word CASE -- the
wetware equivalent of software completion errors.  i suspect it was
the latter, but who knows?

there's a lot of indeterminacy in analyzing typos.  i'm currently
working on a Language Log piece with a section on the entertaining
error "broccoli rabbi" for "broccoli rabe", in a Gordon Biersch menu
description.  i have five alternative analyses.

arnold

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