I Know What You Heard, But It’s Not What I Said

For those of us who are professional communicators, words, their meanings revealed by the context in which they are used, are the building blocks we use to give dimension to abstract concepts and bring ideas to life. Even if the words are meant to be spoken rather than read, they exist as letters scrawled on a piece of paper or pixilated on a digital screen.

I’ve always been a written word person. As a little kid I’m told I was always asking how old I had to be to go to school and learn to read. I think I was the only one in my freshman high school English class that actually read A Tale of Two Cities in its entirety. It’s still one of my favorite books.

What I’ve always liked about written communication is that it allows a degree of precision that can be difficult to achieve in dialog. A clever writer can insert messages to be read between the lines, sure, but the words mean what they mean. And if you don’t know what they mean, you can look them up. Try doing that in the middle of a conversation.

 In writing, the words have to do all the work, but in spoken communication other factors come into play. When they’re being sarcastic, people will often say the opposite of what they mean relying on the tone or inflection they use together with facial expressions or hand gestures to convey sarcasm.  If you miss those aural or visual clues, you might miss the intended message entirely.

And sometimes miscommunication occurs simply because we heard something other than what was actually said. We’re all probably most familiar with this when it comes to the lyrics of popular songs. I still remember an argument I had as a teenager with a friend over the lyrics to The Rascals “Groovin’.” I was sure the line was, “You and me and Leslie,” while my buddy swore it was, “You and me on LSD.” It wasn’t until many years later when my band added the song to its repertoire that I learned the line is really, “You and me, endlessly, groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon.” Now that makes a lot more sense.

And since we’re talking about words, there is one for this phenomenon—mondegreen. The term was reportedly coined by author Sylvia Wright in an Atlantic article in 1954.  As a child she misheard the line, “Thou hae slay the Earl of Murray and laid him on the green” from the old Scottish ballad, “The Bonny Earl of Murray” as “…the Earl of Murray and Lady Mondegreen.”

The website fun-with-words.com lists a number of other contemporary mondegreens, but some of the most ridiculous include:

“There’s a bathroom on the right” for “There’s a bad moon on the rise.” (“Bad Moon Rising,” Creedence Clearwater Revival)

“Dead ants are my friends, they’re blowin’ in the wind,” for “The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind.” (“Blowin’ in the Wind,” Bob Dylan)

And of course, “The girl with colitis goes by,” for “The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.” (“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” The Beatles)

And sometimes mondegreens are made intentionally to make a point. The most famous recent example may have been John McCain singing the refrain from “that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran” rather than the more innocuous “Barbara Ann.” Or to make a double entendre as did Memphis Slim and many others with the line, “If you see Kay.”

Mondegreens are a lot of fun but song lyrics are not the only instances where spoken words are misheard and misunderstood. In those other instances rather than mondegreens, the term is oronyms.

Common examples of oronyms are “I scream” instead of “ice cream” and “some others” for “some mothers.” When Bill Clinton was first running for President, he was interviewed on MTV, and when asked to name his favorite musician, the former jazz saxophonist and future President replied,  “Thelonious Monk.” The interviewer nodded knowingly and then a short time later reportedly asked someone off camera, “Who’s the loneliest monk?”  The  oronyms I enjoy the most are misheard clichés, which change the meaning entirely. One that is surprisingly common and always brings a smile to my face is the expression, “It’s a doggy-dog world.” What the heck does that mean? I understand that things are cut-throat in a “dog eat dog world,” but a doggy-dog world just makes me think of a pack of various-sized canines frolicking in the park.

So remember, our words count and we should use them wisely. They are the tools we use to help our clients get their messages across and the weapons we use to defend them. But none of that happens if our words aren’t clear.

To show just how mixed up a message can be, I’ll leave you with the words of Gilda Radner’s character Emily Litella who once asked, “Why don’t parents want their children to see violins on television?”

So whatever your message, just make sure that the words you are using are the same ones your audience hears.