This paper offers a closer look at malapropisms from a linguistic point of view. With a focus on processing cues it provides a corpus-based formal analysis of the structural and semantic properties of word-play involving the distortion or confusion of words. It also contains an account of how differences concerning the diachronic development of lexemes can help to differentiate between the malapropism proper on the one hand and similar phenomena on the other. With respect to linguistic and literary theory, the aim of this paper is to provide evidence-based arguments for a clear delimitation of the malapropism proper by highlighting the mechanisms and regularities Shakespeare employed so skilfully in order to evoke the impression of random confusion of learned words by not-so-learned characters.
Dieser Eintrag ist Teil der Universitätsbibliographie.
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