Journalist and language expert Erard believes
we can learn a lot from our mistakes. He argues that the
secrets of human speech are present in our own proliferating
verbal detritus. Erard plots a comprehensive outline of
verbal blunder studies throughout history, from Freud's
fascination with the slip to Allen Funt's Candid
Camera. Smoothly summarizing complex linguistic
theories, Erard shows how slip studies undermine some
well-established ideas on language acquisition and speech.
Included throughout are hilarious highlight reels of
bloopers, boners, Spoonerisms, malapropisms and eggcorns.
The author also introduces interesting people along the way,
from notebook-toting, slip-collecting professors to the
devoted members of Toastmasters, a public speaking club with
a self-help focus.
According to Erard, the aesthetic of
umlessness is a relatively new development in society
originating alongside advents in mechanical reproduction,
but it may be on its way out already. Take President Bush,
who exemplifies that the quirky casual, whether it is
intentional or spontaneous, can inspire more trust than the
slick and polished. Erard closes by examining our own
propensity toward verbal missteps, demonstrating how the
interpretation of blunders is inextricable from social
expectations. While Erard's conclusion that meaning is
socially and historically embedded may not be unfamiliar,
his work challenges the reader to think about his or her own
speech in an entirely new way.
