Mini: Shakespeare's Language Framework: Malapropisms

Shakespeare Anyone?

Aug 28, 2024•20 min

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Episode description

Today’s episode is another part of our series on Shakespeare’s Language Framework, or how Shakespeare’s use of language can inform our understanding of his works. In today’s episode, we are going to explore a device Shakespeare uses throughout his plays (but very notably in the comedies and histories): malapropisms.

We will start by defining the term malapropism, then we will explore a linguistic study on malapropisms to determine how Shakespeare's malapropisms are linguistically constructed. We will also discuss whether or not early modern audiences would have understood these malapropisms as intentional wordplay, and how scholars know that they are intentional, instead of a printing or editing error.

Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

This episode was written by Elyse Sharp.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

“Acyrology, N.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4304815537.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "malapropism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Jul. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/malapropism. Accessed 20 August 2024.

"Dogberryism." Oxford Reference. . . Date of access 21 Aug. 2024, https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095724827

Keller, M. (2017). “Saying Thus or to the Same Defect”: A Linguistic Analysis of Shakespeare’s Malapropisms. English Studies, 98(3), 244–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2017.1283119

Livingstone, David. (2024). "If We Offend, It Is With Our Good Will”: Malapropisms, Mispronunciation and Garbling of Language in Shakespeare's Plays. FOLIUM. 4. 160-166. 10.32782/folium/2024.4.23.

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