Some slips of the tongue (speech errors) for analysis. Latest ones on top.
19. Paul Begala (bridge /bitch)
You always know when you have a name like the ‘Brent Spense Bridge’ that someone is going to trip up on its name some day but you don’t expect them to do it in such a sublime way as Paul Begala did on Cuomo Prime Time on CNN:
01 PB: not (.) to help the the 02 one thousand people 03 er who died last year 04 in his commonwealth opioids 05 not (.) not to fix the Brent Spense bridge ►06 which is the second busiest bitch 07 bridge in America 08 second only to George Washington bridge 09 up in your part of the world 10 ...
The participants did well to keep a straight face and Begala hardly flinched as he corrected the slip.
Source: CNN 3rd June 2021 Cuomo Prime Time about 6 mins.
18. Peter Bone (Eustice /Useless)
It must be difficult having a name like ‘Eustice’. It is so close to being ‘useless’ and when it is early in the morning then not everyone is going to get it right.
►01 PB: er George Useless I think erm 02 was also not correct 03 INT: George Eustice I think 04 I think you might have been er 05 a bit of a 06 nickname 07 PB: it is early in the morning 08 Radio 4 Today 19/5/2021
17. Justin Webb (planet/panel)
Here’s a nice pair of slips that are almost mirror images of each other. One occurred at the start of an interview on Radio 4 and the other at the end about five minutes later.
.. 01 and Professor Myles Allen as well 02 head of the climate dynamics groups at er 03 Oxford University 04 who served in the UN's ►05 intergovernmental planet er planet panel 06 ((chuckles)) on climate change 07 and is dubbed the physicist behind net zero 08 morning to you both .. (about 5 min later) .. 09 professor Myles Allen 10 and er Barroness Brown as well 11 thank you both very much 12 and I should say ►13 thirty nine ways to save the planel 14 planet is er on 15 it's running all this week ..
16. Boris Johnson (crisis /speaker)
01 some people mister speaker 02 on er some people 03 have said that this is a good crisis 04 mister speaker 05 some people have said this is a good crisis 06 some people have said 07 some people have said 08 er that this crisis 09 is a gift that keeps on giving ►10 mister crisis 11 er mister speaker 12 ((chamber laughter)) 13 er er xx 14 those people sit on the labour front bench
- classification: word substitution
- target speaker
- actual: crisis
15. Bridget Simmons
01 we will continue to do that ►02 we'll work with the gavernment 03 and we will work with the gambling commission 04 but we are very much welcome this new code
- classification: phoneme anticipation
- target: government /gʌvəmənt/
- actual: gaverment /gævəmənt/
- (radio 4 Today 2 Feb 2021 about 8:58)
14. Jayne Secker
01 this is sky news today 02 coming up next er 03 England's chief deputy medical ►04 deputy cha- (.) de- 05 I'll start again 06 England's deputy chief medical officer 07 we got there 08 reassure the public 09 that safety standards 10 will not be compromised
13. Emily Maitlis (hell/Hull)
01 Labour's former health secretary 02 Alan Johnson er joins us ►03 down the line (.) from hell er 04 from Hull 05 er Alan Johnson ((laughs)) 06 I'm never gonna recover from that 07 now am I 08 erm 09 you know what it's like 10 to be health secretary 11 during a crisis BBC Newsnight, 22nd September 2020
12. David Pawson (Preacher)
01 but this is the story I heard 02 and it took place in America (0.7) 03 in a theological cemetery ►04 I’m sorry theological seminary (0.7) 05 ((laughter)) 06 seminary (2.5) 07 Freudian slip 08 ((laughter))
YouTube (about 32 mins)
11. Ken Clark (‘frinding free’)
01 and going into to lockdown's 02 easier than coming out of it 03 and actually 04 (1.2) ►05 f- frinding free money 06 er actually producing 07 borrowing and printing 08 er vast sums of money 09 in order to save people's jobs 10 makes you quite popular
- Classification: phoneme anticipation
10. Andrew Neil (Joris/Boris)
The Andrew Neil Interviews, BBC, 4th December 2019 01 AN: you've ruled out ►02 working with both Joris 03 Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn 04 in a hung parliament 05 so (.) what would the Lib Dems do if there was deadlock 06 you'd just sit on your hands
- Classification: phoneme anticipation
9. Dianne Abbott (privatising /nationalising)
Here is an example of a slip of the tongue which is corrected by another person in the discourse. We normally correct our own slips, but in this case, Dianne Abbott’s slip in line 02 was corrected by the host of the show, Chris Mason (CM), in line 04. There is then some ensuing laughter and a comment from Mason on the slip.
BBC Any Questions, 15th Nov 2019 (about 19 mins) 01 DA: we believe th- ►02 yes by privatising 02 er some of BT ►04 CM: nationalising (0.6) 05 DA: nationalising ((laughs)) 06 Audience: ((laughs)) 07 DA: by national- 08 CM: I thought there was a big U-turn 09 happening in front of our eyes 10 DA: yeah yeah 11 CM: er I I should have let you finish that sentence 12 DA: you should have let me finish 13 CM: and not picked you up on it 14 DA: by nation- by nationalising part of BT
- Classification: word substitution
8. Democrafic /Democratic
Camilla Tominey on Politics Live, 5th November 2019.
01 Ed 02 what about the democrafic 03 er demo- er 04 democratic growth loss 05 of revoking the referendum
- deməkræfɪk
- deməkrætɪk
7. Betrayal /Portrayal
An interesting slip of the tongue by Andrew Marr on his Sunday show in line 05 below. Marr meant to say ‘portrayal’ but actually said ‘betrayal’. He had just finished interviewing the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in which they had discussed the use of language in politics. ‘Betrayal’ was one of the words they had discussed (but 20 minutes earlier) and it seems like this word was primed in memory and ready to interfere when Marr moved to the next item. Marr didn’t try to correct this mistake which is unusual since most speakers do hesitate and repair. ‘Betrayal’ and ‘portrayal’ are phonologically similar which might also account for the slip.
- betrayal /bɪˈtreɪəl/
-
portrayal /pɔːˈtreɪəl/
Andrew Marr, BBC, 29th September 2019
01 in a career that's seen her crowned with every possible honour
02 Dame Helen Miren
03 is no stranger to monarchy
04 she won an Oscar of course in two thousand and six
05 for her betrayal of the Queen
Older slips ===>
6. Beth Rigby
Adam Boulton, Sky TV, 4th July 2019
01 and Beth is rigby now er
02 Beth Rigby is with me now ((laughs))
03 er er Beth er
5. Jeremy *unt
Victoria Derbyshire, BBC One, 10th June 2019
01: Steve Bryne
02: you say that the the man that you're backing
03: Jeremy Cunt
04: I'm so sorry
05: Jeremy Hunt
06: I've never said that before in my life
07: it's usually men who say that
08: so I really really want to apologise
09: I'm sorry
4. Chris fifth
BBC Radio 4 : talking about Chris Froome
01: well it's good to hear you say that
02: because he's thirty four now isn't he
03: and in terms of winning a Chris
04: er er er a fifth erm title
05: which he really craved in the Tour de France
06: riders rarely do it at that age
3. When Larry met Gary (Jon Snow)
Speech error is in line 06:
Jon Snow (Channel 4 News)
01 at Whitehall
02 the Conservative and Labour Brexit talks
03 started again (.) after the Easter Break
04 but (.) our political editor Gary Gibbon
05 is in the commons
06 Larry
07 er Gary
08 tell me this
09 is (.) Mrs May bracing herself for a erm
10 challenge in the summer do you think?
2. Kirsty Wark
The slip occurs in line 04 when Wark starts to utter the word ‘Instagram’ instead of ‘Amsterdam’. Wark recognises her error in 05 and corrects it in 06.
Kirsty Wark (Newsnight) 01 Amy Orben is a lecture for Oxford University 02 specializing in the effects of hu- 03 social media on human interaction (.) 04 she joins us from Insta- 05 er from Instagram (.) 06 from Amsterdam ((laughs)) 07 thank you both very indeed for (joining us) ...
This is classified as a word substitution speech error but there are interesting phonological similarities between the word which suggest why the slip might have been made. In IPA the two words can be written thus:
- /æm.stə.dæm/
- /ɪn.stə.ɡræm/
Both have three syllables with the stress on the first syllable. The middle syllable is the same and the final syllables rhyme.
- Classification: Word substitution due to phonological similarity
1. BBC News Reader
The slip occurs in line 04 ‘Tump’ when the target was ‘Trump’. This is repaired in line 05 before the news reader moves on.
BBC News Reader (radio 4 Today programme) 01 the Brazilian president (.) Jair Bolsonaro 02 will meet Donald Trump 03 for talks at the White House later today 04 an outspoken admirer of President Tump 05 (0.2) Trump (.) 06 Mr Bolsonaro 07 has said he’s seeking a new era 08 of close relations with the U.S. ...
1. BBC Radio 4, Today programme, 19th March 2019
2. BBC Newsnight, 1st February 2019 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0c1stn6/newsnight-01022019
3. Channel 4 News, 23rd April 2019 (about 41 mins)
7. The Andrew Marr Show, BBC, 29th September 2019
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.