Words for weird brain blips

[eruthros]

I was talking about this with friede earlier, and we couldn't think of the word for this, if one exists.

See, there's this thing people do when typing where somewhere between brain and fingers you substitute a not-quite-homonym.

Like today, when I was trying to type "and soon: croissants!" and actually typed "and sound: croissants!" and had to go back and change it. And I typed "I half hard cider" instead of "I have hard cider." And most recently, instead of "what day is your exam?" I typed "what does your exam?" The interesting thing being that the words can be completely different in spelling and in finger position (that is, they're not typos in the pure sense) and they have a completely different meaning.

And it's most frequent with short (one-syllable) commonly-used words -- maybe because you're thinking carefully about spelling and things when using words like "floccinaucinihilipilificator," and besides, what sounds like floccinaucinihilipilificator? Now I want to do a bio-psych study to see what, exactly, is going on there, brain-wise.

If no word exists for this, I'm inventing one out of a Latinate base and getting in the OED.

Comments

[helenish.livejournal.com]

I do this ALL THE TIME. I think, however, that it's probably a pretty rare phenomenon that will become much more widespread, since I think it's linked to 1. being a quick and completely automatic typist and 2. using messaging programs, or anything that mimics the pace of speaking. - That is, as more and more people come to be able to think-and-type as quickly as they might think-and-talk.

Mine are even more wonky than "sound" for "soon" - they're usually, in fact, completely phonetic substitutions - the other day, I wrote "marshall arts" when I, in fact, meant 'martial arts'.

It's when there's no filter between your brain and your typing - which, when you think about it, is incredible - and, what's more, I bet most of the people on my FL are fast and fluid typists, who are prone to exactly these sorts of weird brain malfunctions when it comes to routing thoughts into language and then into letter-by-letter transcription.

[eruthros]

Yes! Exactly! It's like -- okay, so I make those kinds of weird mistakes when I talk, but I've been talking since I was a year old. But typing? The idea that I can be typing without actively thinking about it is pretty mind-boggling.

But actually a lot of people I know who IM don't make these mistakes, and I don't know what's up with that. My sister and her friends don't, and I wonder if it might have to do with touch-typing, because none of them type more'n fifty words a minute and none of them do touch type. Whereas I accidentally correct the grammar when I do the typing tests.

[carolyn-claire.livejournal.com]

But wouldn't it be more fun to name it after yourself? "Well, damn, I just (insert your name)ed again." Or, well, maybe not. Hmm.

[eruthros]

Like lysimache says below, most of these things are named after the famous people who make those mistakes. However, I think "I just claired again" doesn't have that certain special ring to it.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I do this too, and I bet there is a word for it. I bet Oliver Sacks knows what it's called. Taber's Medical Dictionary might be helpful, although I'm not sure where you'd look....

[eruthros]

Oh, I totally should have thought of Oliver Sacks! And I really should ask m_shell.

lysimache gave me a general category below -- dysgraphia -- which makes sense to a point. But no specific name for this specific thing, which I think is a new and different kind of dysgraphia that emerges with people who write really quickly. I'd wager that you get it on, for example, timed exam essays. But mostly in IM.

[thatgirlthere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's why I try not to type "hold on a sec" anymore. It is sometimes bad to say "hold on a sex" to someone you don't really know. I do have other slip ups that are a lot like the other persons Martial->Marshall.

I think the whole thing happens because you are typing so fast that your hands go on auto pilot and will type what would seem to flow more often. See if the beginning of the mistakes you make are common letter combinations in words to see if the frequency cues your hands.

[lysimache.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's a specific name for this type of error (ask Elena next semester; she's taking psychlinguistics then! *g*); it's a type of dysgraphia, analagous to any of the speech errors one makes all the time. There's a performance error in feature selection/production in "half" for "have" ([-voice] for [+voice]); others appear to be related to the frequency effect, where a more common word is substituted for a less common one.

Personally, I'd go with a Greek-rooted word, since most of the terms for these things are Greek, rather than Latin, but the names for speech errors I do know are all from names of people who are notorious for them -- malapropism, Spoonerism... :)

[eruthros]

So far's I know, no one is yet famous for ridiculous errors made while typing quickly. :)

And yah, it's totally analagous to the speech errors, but it just seems so incredible that you can do so much typing that you can make those same kinds of errors, you know?