Slips of the tongue can be embarrassing for the speaker at the best of times but often provide light relief for the audience. So it was with the Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew Davies, who was speaking at the Conservative party conference yesterday. Davies meant to say “we will make Brexit a success” but instead said “breakfast”.
Andrew Davies 01: mark my words 02: we will (.) make (.) breakfast 03: brexit (.) a success 04: ((audience laughter then applause))
This would be classified as a ‘word substitution’ error. The error was made all the more noticeable by the deliberately slow delivery of the words (line 02) with emphasis and micropauses. The error was quickly repaired in line 03 but by this time the audience had picked up on the humorous slip. Fortunately Mr Davies saw the funny side of things and received a warm round of applause for the unplanned, unintended nugget of humour he brought to the conference.
Huffington Post article on error
Other slips
Slips of the Tongue – “Child free tax care”
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