F/C malaprop

On Facebook, Ry Schwark reports the following exchange:

Jenny: I miss Bukkake.
Me: (Stunned Silence)
Jenny: Yeah, I mean, the Japanese dance.
Me: You mean Butoh?
Jenny: Yeah, the other Japanese B thing.

This is about as clear an example of a Fay/Cutler malapropism as you could want.

F/C malaprops are phonologically-based errors in retrieval: during speech production, you reach for a word and get, not your intended target, but a phonologically similar word. The contrast is to “classical malapropisms” (of the Mrs. Malaprop sort), where the error is in storage rather than retrieval: for whatever reason, you have internalized the wrong phonology for a word — usually, phonology associated with a different word.

In Ry’s story, Jenny intends butoh, but retrieves bukkake instead; the error is encouraged by both words being associated with Japanese customs (Wikipedia pages: for butoh here and bukkake here).

It’s often hard to tell whether some particular example is a F/C malaprop or a CM, but sometimes speakers provide  feedback that reveals their intentions: they resolutely stick by their word choice (indicating a CM), or, as Jenny does above, they quickly recant (indicating a F/C malaprop).

A final word, about Ry’s Stunned Silence: bukkake — group ejaculation, as portrayed in porn films,  onto someone, originally a woman but then a man as well; and there’s a urinary variant – is a practice many people find unsavory, and it’s most often seen as humiliating, so Ry was of course taken aback when Jenny said she missed it.

 

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