A Phonological Study of Mondegreens in English | ||
| Journal of Tikrit University for the Humanities | ||
| Article 1, Volume 19, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 399-422 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Ruqaiya B. Abdurrahman; Israa B. Abdurrahman | ||
| Abstract | ||
| ABSTRACT An accidental mishearing of a phrase sometimes makes the phrase acquire a new meaning. This mishearing is called 'mondegreen'. If utterances are composed, on purpose, to result in mondegreens, then their aim is to entertain the hearer and to create jokes and riddles, mainly. For example, a. "He took a nice cold shower after his date" (original). b. "He took an ice cold shower after his date" (mondegreen). If not, then those mondegreens are accidental and can be applied to any type of speech especially songs and lyrics where the phonological environment sounds ambiguous. For example, a. "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" (original). b. "Excuse me while I kiss this guy" (mondegreen). The task of this paper is trying to answer the question why we mondegreen. To achieve that, some linguistic theories are applied to explain the act of mondegreening, then a phonological analysis is applied to a group of eight chosen texts. This paper handles, also, the definition of mondegreens, how it came into existence, and types of mondegreens. Finally, findings and conclusions will be listed at the end of the analysis. | ||
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