Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 19:58:45 -0600

From: Kat Rose Kat.Rose[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SPOT.COLORADO.EDU

Subject: Mary, full of grapes/Mondegreens



Mondegreens just came up again on the Copyediting list:



"...a two-tier system where, if you could afford to *jump the cue*, you

should be allowed to" was presented by Claudette Upton (COPYEDITING-L,

10-8-96), from a piece she was editing, as an example of "homophonophobia."



I can imagine an explanation for "jump the cue" instead of "jump the queue,"

albeit a weak one. Jumping the cue could be the same as a false start --

going off half-cocked, if you will. As in, starting before the cue to start

has been given.

__Madeline Koch, COPYEDITING-L, 10-9-96.



Unless anyone has already come up with a 'blessed' definition for

mondegreens, I think we're making progress. I would offer that a true

mondegreen would not only be a misheard word or phrase but one for which

some explanation for the erroneous version--however weak--is offered to

justify one's belief in the validity of the alternative. "Jump the cue" is

now a worthy candidate, IMHO.

__Paul Witheridge, COPYEDITING-L, 10-10-96



IMO, "jumping the cue" and "one in the same" are mondegreens....These

are, as Paul suggests, cases of misunderstanding the spoken word,

transferring it to written

form, and seeing it as--however weakly--explicable, albeit odd-looking.

__Dan A. Wilson



[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE] -- ---

Kat Rose Kat.Rose[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]spot.Colorado.edu

My words, my rights, my responsibility