Slip of the tongue

A slip of the foot may injure one's body, but a slip of the tongue has the potential to injure one's bond, if not one's reputation or image. The tongue is one of the most complicated organs of the body, and a dangerous one too. According to scientists, the tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth that is covered with moist, pink tissue called the mucosa. While tiny bumps called papillae to give the tongue its rough texture, thousands of taste buds cover the surfaces of the papillae. Taste buds on the other hand are collections of nerve-like cells that connect to nerves running into the brain. The tongue is fixed to the mouth by webs of tough tissue and mucosa. While the tether holding down the front of the tongue is called the frenum, in the back of the mouth, the tongue is anchored into the hyoid bone. The tongue is vital for chewing and swallowing food, as well as for speech. And it is this last function – speech – which often causes a lot of problems, especially if the owner of the body to which the tongue belongs prefers not to be careful of what he or she intends to say and what is spoken out. The particular activity of the tongue that lands in trouble a person saying something is called "a slip of the tongue", it is a mistake in speaking, usually trivial, sometimes amusing, and once in a while also leading to serious problems and situations. President Ram Nath Kovind had on Saturday indirectly referred to the human tongue when he observed that it is incumbent upon the judges to exercise the utmost discretion in their utterances inside courtrooms, as indiscreet remarks, even if made with good intention, can give space for dubious interpretations to run down the judiciary. Though the President, who was addressing the valedictory function of the Constitution Day programme organized by the Supreme Court in the national capital, had expressed happiness as he noted that the Indian judiciary has been adhering to the highest standards, he however more than once made this reference to the human tongue. He reportedly said there was no doubt that the members of the judiciary have set for themselves a high bar. But then, it is also incumbent upon the judges to exercise the utmost discretion in their utterances in courtrooms, the President observed. He particularly stated that indiscreet remarks, even if made with good intention, can give space for dubious interpretations to run down the judiciary. Leaving aside what the President said regarding the need for judges to exercise the utmost discretion in their utterances inside courtrooms, it is interesting to look at 'slip of the tongue as a global human phenomenon. According to British linguist George Yule, most everyday 'slips of the tongue' are often simply the result of a sound being carried over from one word to the next, as in back bloxes' (for 'black boxes'), or a sound used in one word in anticipation of its occurrence in the next word, as in 'noman rumeral' (for 'roman numeral'), or a 'tup of cea' ('cup of tea'), or 'the most highly played payer' ('highly paid player'). Yule has said that the last example is close to the reversal type of slip, illustrated by 'shu flots', which may not make one 'beel fetter' if one is suffering from a 'stick neff', and it is always better to 'loop before you leak'. According to him, the last two examples involve the interchange of word-final sounds and are much less common than word-initial slips. According to Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, if a slip of the tongue that turns what the speaker intended to say into its opposite is made by one of the adversaries in a serious argument, it immediately puts him at a disadvantage, and his opponent seldom wastes any time in exploiting the advantage for his ends. It is however interesting to note that normal speech contains a large number of such slips, though these mostly pass unnoticed. According to Jean Aitchinson, a professor of language and communications, the errors fall into patterns, and it is possible to conclude them about the underlying mechanisms involved. Aitchinson has divided the slip of the tongue into two types - (a) Selection errors, where a wrong item has been chosen, usually a lexical item, as with 'tomorrow' instead of 'today' ('That's all for tomorrow') and (b) Assemblage errors, where the correct items have been selected, but they have been assembled in the wrong order, as in 'holed and sealed' for 'soled and healed,' or 'dainy ray' for 'rainy day.'