Language, Literature & Literacy

Feb. 24, 2006

Solomon or Salami?

A few years ago I came across an article on the internet entitled "Solomon or Salami" by Helen R. Rowe, which was reprinted from the November 1959 issue of The Atlantic Monthly magazine.

What intrigued me about the article was that it hit upon a reoccuring phenomenon that I have been observing and that I call "whole word" mishaps. What happens is a reader will misread a word by reading it as another word that is similar in size and shape. This happens because the reader has learned to read mainly by memorizing the physical configuration of words and not by the sound/symbol relationship.

For instance, I read a quote from a professional football player a few weeks ago who said, "There is so much parody that any given Sunday, anyone can beat anyone."

Did you catch the "whole word" mishap? Would you have caught the mistake if I hadn't bolded the word?

Although the word parody still makes the sentence meaningful as there is some truth in that the NFL does have too much "feeble or ridiculous imitation" going on, the word parity is more fitting as the "equality" of the league (or the lack of it) has been part of the mantra of footballspeak for years. Or, do I really mean "equity?" Smile.

Read the article and tell me what you think.

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Comments

Feb. 27, 2006 - parody

Posted by Anonymous

So was the error with the player who said the word or the sports writer who translated the quote into print? (Seems that a sports editor might have caught the error, too.)

Bottom line: I'm not surprised at the potentially inferior literacy of a professional athelete (even though that should be a point of concern). It's a sad commentary on the state of literacy that this error would be promulgated, if not created, by journalists.

Sean McDeavitt
West Lafayette, IN

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Feb. 27, 2006 - Solomon or Salami?

Posted by LiteracyLovers

It's hard to say.

The athlete could have used the wrong word, the sportswriter could have misheard it, or they both used and understood it correctly with the sportwriter just pulling the wrong word from his memory due to his learning to read via the whole word memorization method.

Whatever the case, we have a definite literacy problem here.

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Feb. 28, 2006 - Another "whole word" mishap in the news

Posted by LiteracyLovers

I just read in our local newspaper, a syndicated article from USA Today, entitled, "Most want to say in Big Easy, poll says." Of course, "say" should be "stay." Anyone else have any to share?

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