Malapropism, spoonerism, Roald Dahl’s prose has all this and more. Do you know what they mean?

Last week, we had a glimpse of the author’s kaleidoscopic vocabulary. Without wading into the debate on the merit or the demerit of the rewrite, we will have a look at Dahl’s method in madness.

Someone who gorged on Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling and William Makepeace Thackeray, wordsmithery came naturally to Dahl. Most of his coinages, however, adhered to linguistic tropes which writers, playwrights and poets have been taking recourse to. Only, he did it with a panache rarely seen. Some of the devices he used profusely are onomatopoeia, alliterative phonaesthesia, reduplication, malapropism and spoonerism. Let’s try to understand what they mean.

Onomatopoeia (Dahl’s coinages: lickswishy, delumptious) is the use or formation of a word which imitates the sound it intends to describe. Some common examples could be hiss, buzz, stuttering, etc.

Alliterative phonaesthesia (squinky squiddler, troggy little twit), also called phonetic symbolism or sound symbolism, refers to the use of same consonant clusters in a series of words which become associated with specific meanings. Example: dash, crash, bash, splash, whoosh among others all of which suggest a swift and strong movement.

Reduplication (ucky-mucky) is a process of compound word formation in which the meaning is expressed through repeating all or part of it. Hanky-panky, ragtag, willy-nilly, etc., are a few common examples.

Malapropism (tummyrot for tommyrot) is rather interesting. It owes its origin to Mrs Malapropos, a character in R B Sheridan’s play The Rivals, which first played in theatres in the 1770s. Her mishandling of words had audiences in splits. Malapropism describes what comedians still do to get a laugh. A malapropism is a blundering use of a word that sounds like the one intended; in general it is contrived for humorous effect, but often it is made unintentionally, as when somebody says that she is throwing things down the insinuator (instead of incinerator). The character’s name itself comes from the French mal a propos, not apropos, inappropriate.

Spoonerism (catasterous disastrophe), another interesting literary device, owes its name to William Archibald Spooner, a distinguished Anglican clergyman and warden of New College, Oxford University. During his sermons and lectures, he often, allegedly, succumbed to such slips of the tongue in which he transposed consonants or syllables, for example, he is believed to have remarked that he was departing Oxford by “the town drain” (the down train) and that he was “tired of addressing beery wenches” (weary benches). So, to say a blushing crow (for crushing blow) will qualify as spoonerism. Such transpositions are sometimes made intentionally to produce comic effect.

Besides these, there are many instances of palindromes and portmanteau words. Go, check them out.