[Ads-l] Language and children; flee/flea. Was: Antedating of Flea Market

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is a modern instance of a child misunderstanding the audio output
of a GPS navigator device.

Website: UPI
Title: 'Bear right' GPS message terrifies bear-fearing boy
Author: Ben Hooper
Dtae: March 31, 2016 at 2:31 PM

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2016/03/31/Bear-right-GPS-message-terrifies-bear-fearing-boy/1521459448607/

[Begin excerpt]
COLORADO SPRINGS, March 31 (UPI) -- A couple perplexed by their
panicking small children while driving through Colorado discovered the
kids were frightened by a GPS warning: "Bear right."

The video, posted to YouTube by Chip Golden, features footage filmed
inside the family's car during a drive to the zoo in Colorado Springs.

"We have a problem," the couple's young son, Austin, says.
"What kind of a problem?" the father asks.
"A bear problem," Austin answers.

The parents grill their children about the issue and discover the
boy's sister, Abby, had heard the TomTom GPS device tell the driver to
"bear right," an instruction Abby took as a warning about a bear on
her brother's side of the vehicle.
[End excerpt]

On Sat, Apr 2, 2016 at 11:03 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> I've been collecting information on children's language, including
>
> children's misperceptions of adult speech.  In this regard, I
>
> noticed David Daniel's 2008 message below, in which a child
>
> humorously mistook the verb "flee" to be the noun "flea."
>
> Might I now ask David:  Does he have first-hand knowledge
>
> of this humorous incident? (Did he hear it himself? Was it told
>
> about a child of one of his friends or relatives?) Or was it
>
> perhaps a fabricated bit of humor that can't reliably be judged
>
> to have actually occurred?
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________
> Original message to American Dialect Society on behalf
> of David A. Daniel (dad at POKERWIZ.COM<mailto:dad at POKERWIZ.COM>)
> Sent: Wed 7/9/2008 10:52 AM
> Subject: Re: Antedating of Flea Market
>
> Sunday school teacher, reading Bible passage: "The man named Lot was warned
> to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was
> turned to salt."
>
> Concerned four-year-old: "What happened to the flea?"
> DAD
>
> <snip>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org