“Eggcorns” as a distinct type of speech error in English

The research findings suggest that eggcorns represent a mixed type of language error that display characteristics typical for both word production and word perception errors, providing support for the theory that competence errors like eggcorns are manifested as a reinterpretation of linguistic input as a result of faulty processing and storage. Moreover, a number of factors increasing the likelihood of eggcorn occurrence were identified, including low frequency and phonotactic probability, non-compositional meaning, and foreign etymology of the target lexical item. In the process of our research, eggcornization was shown to affect mostly fixed and emotionally charged phrases that can be attributed to a wide range of semantic fields, often relating to basic human experience.
Lastly, the fact that eggcorns mirrored many of the processes and motivations behind folk etymology, had high semantic plausibility and the possibility of replacing obsolete terms, and be involved in the change of connotation and semantic shift points to a conclusion that eggcorns may not only reveal important information about language processing and production but also shed light on the ongoing changing of language and the processes involved in it.

Митрофанкіна М. М. “Eggcorns” as a distinct type of speech error in English : кваліфікаційна робота освітнього рівня “магістр” : 035 Філологія / наук. кер. А. В. Карабан. Київ, 2023. 99 с.