Congressman Covid

August 1, 2020 @ 5:21 pm · Filed by under Psychology of language

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In a statement on 7/29, Kevin McCarthy apparently meant to say "Congressman Gohmert" but what comes out is "Congressman Covid":


This error is a perfect example of a "Fay-Cutler malapropism" — for an explanation of that phase, see "Defendants wrongly committed of a crime" 8/4/2011. Note that Covid and Gohmert are both disyllabic proper nouns with initial stress on the vowel /o/, starting with a velar stop (/k/ vs. /g/) and ending with a coronol stop (/d/ vs. /t/).

We want to be able to trace it, put them out, and just as uh
Congressman Covid says- uh Congressman Louis Gohmert says that he doesn't have any symptoms
um
there could be other people like that so

For a few more details on the quote's context, see "Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy Accidentally Calls Louie Gohmert 'Congressman COVID'", Newsweek 7/30/2020.

August 1, 2020 @ 5:21 pm · Filed by under Psychology of language


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