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Meaning of chemical changes?

Tiny changes in sentences that create huge changes in meaning

  • What are very small changes in the sound of a sentence which completely alter the meaning? As an example, yesterday, I said that my new cat "hat angst von vögeln". I meant to say, "hat angst von vögel", "is afraid of birds", but instead said, with admittedly poor grammar, that he "is afraid of fucking". What I'm curious about are other sentences where a single small change like that, one easy difference in sounds, completely alters what is being said.

  • Answer:

    This could happen in innumerable sentences. However, some general trends that I find trip up native speakers of English: * in Japanese, vowel length is crucial to the pronunciation and meaning of words. For example, "komon" is assistant but "koumon" is anus. Be careful if you are saying that you are someone's assistant. Similarly, "shojo" can mean "female virgin", "young girl", or "orangutan", depending on how long the vowels are held. * in Mandarin, 鞋子 and 蝎子 are both pronounced "xiezi" but with different tones on the first syllable. If you tell someone about the xiezi in your closet, their reaction will depend on your attention to proper intonation.

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benito.strauss

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Dolley

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