Oops! How's That Again?

                         Oops! How's That Again?

Summary

     Oops! How's That Again? Is a humorous essay written by an American writer, Roger Rosenblatt. In this essay the writer classifies verbal errors into five categories along with several examples for each and tries to explain some linguistic and psychological reasons behind them.

      Tongue slip is the most common type of verbal error. It happens when a person intends to say one thing but happens to say something else. It can have shameful effect on both the speaker as well as the listener. For. Eg, A businessman wished Prince Charles a long life and conjugal happiness with Lady Jane. But in fact he was engaged to marry Lady Diana and Lady Jane was his former beloved.

       Faux Pass is another type of verbal error. It takes place when somebody says something supposing it to be harmless but its meaning upsets the listener. For eg The President of Germany greeted The President of India with 'Who are you?" instead of "How are you?".

       Blooper is more serious type of verbal error as the one spoken over radio. It can have more serious effect then tongue slip and faux pass because the message is instantly made public. For eg:- Chicago's mayor daily couldn’t recover from the mistake of saying, "Policeman is not there to create disorder, policeman is there to preserve disorder".

           Mistranslation takes place when some slogans or statements are translated from one language to another language carelessly. For eg; The slogan "Come alive with Pepsi" was translated from German to English as, "Come alive out of grave with Pepsi." It was elsewhere translated as,"Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave."

            Spoonerism is the last type of verbal error illustrated in the essay. It takes place when initial or other sounds of two words are interchanged. An eg of Spoonerism is, "Kinquering Kongs Their Title Take". (Conquering Kings Their Title Take)

       The writer puts forward some linguistic and psychological explanation behind the verbal errors. According to Victoria Fromkin, verbal errors are the close about how the brain stores and articulates thoughts. A psychologist, Sigmund Freud regards the slips of tongue as the medium to reveal the hidden motive of thee speaker. A psychiatrist, Richard Yumazian explains that some incorrect words exists in the associative chain of correct words. The incorrect words are to be substituted by the correct ones. Failing to do so causes verbal errors.

        The writer explains why we laugh when we hear somebody making verbal error. He says that they refresh us breaking our usual monotony. We also enjoy looking at the changing appearance of the mis speaker. We laugh at the mistakes also because they express the hidden motives of the speaker.

        Our life is full of mistakes of one type or another. Not getting what we expect to get or a slip from normal standard is a mistake. All of us expect to be immortal but everyone has to die sooner or later. So we are confused by the mistake of our mortality and laugh at each other.

Questions

   1.   What explanation has Rosenblatt advice for the human tendency to make verbal errors? Is the reader meant to regard all the theories with equal seriousness?

       Every human being make the verbal errors. There are different types of verbal errors. There are different types of verbal errors which are made by different persons in different situations. No, the reader does not mean to regard all of the theories with equal seriousness because there is no uniformity in the theories of linguist. They are different from each other. Different persons has given different theories regarding the verbal errors. It is not necessary to take the verbal errors seriously.

   2.   What examples of verbal error (public blunders, memorable mistranslations, bloopers, spoonerism) have you heard or read about recently? When you cite one that seems particularly revealing, take a guess at its possible cause.

        I have made a verbal error recently.

  Once my father invited his one of friend for the party. As the nose of his friend was long so my father had told me not to ask anything about his nose. After sometime, that friend appeared at my home. When I was going to serve him tea, I asked him, "How much sugar should I put in your nose?" This was a silly mistake from which I couldn’t recover for a long time. I was really ashamed of it. Ever since, my father told me about the nose, I was only thinking about the nose and when I was going to say something but happened another thing.

   3.   Into what groups has Rosenblat organized his numbers of examples of verbal missteps?

    Roger Rosenblatt has explained about different types. They are-

a.      Slips of Tongue :- It is common type of verbal error. It happens when somebody wants to say something else. Eg- Once a businessman wished Prince Charles a long life and conjugal happiness with Lady Jane. But in fact he was engaged to marry to Lady Diana and Lady Jane was his former beloved.

b.     Faux pass:- Faux pass is also one of the verbal error when somebody says something supposing it to be harmless but its meaning upsets the listener. Eg- The president of Germany greeted the president of India with "Who are you?" instead of "How are you?"

c.      Blooper:- It is more serious type of verbal error as the one spoken over radio. It can have more serious effect than tongue slip and faux pass. Eg- Chicago's Mayor Doley couldn’t recovered from the mistake of saying, "Policeman is not there to create disorder, policeman is there to preserve disorder."

d.     Mistranslation:- It takes place when some slogans or statements are translated from one language carelessly. Eg- Slogan "Come alive with Pepsi" was translated from German to English as "Come alive out of the grave with Pepsi". It was elsewhere translated as,"Pepsi brings our ancestors back from the Grave."

e.      Spoonerism:- It is a type of verbal error that takes place when initial or other sounds of two words are interchanged . Eg- Kinquering Kongs Their Title Take (Conquering Kings Their Title Take)

    

       These are the different types of verbal errors which are illustrated in the given essay.