[Ads-l] eggcorns? or just malaprops?

[Chris Waigl]

My $.02 would be:

   - the first (eulogized --> utilized) is a slip of the tongue, or maybe
   even just a jocular reinterpretation of a mumbled production by the
   listener. Maybe a malaprop. Certainly not an eggcorn.
   - the second (yea --> yo) ... I'm not even sure what the problem is. Yo
   and yea aren't that different, are they? It's funny because of the
   register, I guess. Also just a slip of the tongue for me.
   - for the third (phonetically --> fanatically) I'd say a pun on the part
   of the writer, but if this is supposed to have happened, just a classical
   malaprop. The speaker isn't thinking of particularly high levels of
   enthusiasm, but is concerned about correctly pronouncing Hebrew, which he
   likely isn't fluent in and has shaky remnants of his original Hebrew school
   lessons, AFAICT.

Chris Waigl

On Mon, Feb 8, 2021 at 8:02 AM James Landau <
00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> From Rabbi Bob Alper's mailing list
>
> James Landau
> jjjrlandau at netscape.com
>
> [At] times the humor in a funeral home has been more internal and private,
> when I’ve heard words that had me guffawing under an appropriately serious
> outer expression.  Like the time a close friend of the deceased was asked
> to speak in tribute.  I introduced him, then sat just off to the side of
> the pulpit.  The man walked slowly up the three stairs, opened a sheaf of
> notes and placed them on the lectern, and solemnly began, “We have gathered
> together to utilize Phil…”
> Rabbis are not immune from fumbling a word or two. Especially when
> reciting verses that have become, perhaps, too familiar. On this occasion I
> was sitting in the pew while a colleague officiated.  I quietly decided
> that the fellow had spent just a little too much time in Philadelphia when
> I heard him recite these words while reading the Twenty-third Psalm: “Yo
> though I walk…er…yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
> death…”
> But my self-control met its most formidable challenge not in a funeral
> home but of all places, in a supermarket.  This was a trying moment. I was
> in the midst of pondering that critical choice, smooth or crunchy peanut
> butter, when an earnest looking gentleman passed by, then deftly turned his
> shopping cart 180 degrees and rolled up to mine, head-to-head.
> “You’re Rabbi Alper, aren’t you?” he said, and continued, “I’m not a
> member of a synagogue, but I wonder if you could help me with a small
> problem.”  I nodded in the affirmative. And here was where my ability to
> keep a straight face should have won me an Oscar. “You see, Rabbi, my
> brother died last week, and I want to say Kaddish for him.  So, Rabbi,
> could you do me a favor, and write it out for me fanatically?”
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
Chris Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net . http://chryss.eu

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