Aim and Introduction The aim of my research is to investigate which often misused words are confused the most with a similar word. I will obtain opinions on the use of a variety of widely mistaken words and their similar word pairs. My broad research question is ‘To what extent do people confuse the meaning of a commonly misused word with another, similar word?’ and my more specific research questions are ‘Which of these commonly misused words are the most misunderstood?’ and ‘Which of these commonly misused words are confused the most with a similar word?’ I find this area of language particularly interesting and the idea that certain similar words, whether that be in spelling or pronunciation, are more commonly confused than others. It also prompts the consideration of words taking on new meaning through misuse. The common misuse of certain words seems to highlight both an inability and an ability in language users: in some cases, the inability to understand the true meaning of certain words, but in other cases the ability to infer the intended meaning rather than the actual meaning. Background Research I took influence for my study from the 2003 research of Nerlich and Chamizo Domínguez and the more recent 2016 research of Park into the use (or misuse) of literally as an intensifier. In the paper “The use of literally: Vice or virtue?” in The Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics it is stated that “some deplore its increasing misuse as a vague intensifier” and it continues to explore the variety of uses of literally. The paper later concluded that “there is a general tendency to use for interpretation what is presupposed rather than what is asserted and that one function of literally is to counteract that prevailing mode of interpretation” (Nerlich, B. Chamizo Domínguez, P., 2003). Furthermore, “Literally does not always mean literally: a corpus-based diachronic study on literally as an intensifier” generated results that “support the idea that literally is going through grammaticalization, though it is far from a complete intensifier” (Park, S., 2016) Park also draws upon Partington’s idea that “during the grammaticalization, words start to lose their lexical content so that they can have another function (Partington, 1993)” (Park, S., 2016). She continues to state that “in the case of intensifiers, original senses of words start to be reduced to have an amplifying function, and through pragmatic strengthening over time they are finally deprived of their original lexical meaning...” (Park, S., 2016) The process stated in Park’s research paper for intensifiers like literally and very provoked the thought of whether original senses of any classes of words could be reduced due to confusion with another, similar word; the misused word therefore taking on the sense of the similar word (with the intended meaning) it was confused with. This inspired my research, along with the evolving meaning of literally and opinions on the matter having made media coverage in the last decade. An article from The Guardian puts it that literally “has been playfully abused” (Gill, M., 2013). After reading several articles about commonly misused words, (two online articles in particular that I found most useful were by Bruk, D., 2018 and another by Haden, J., 2015) I considered which of the mentioned words I had personally noticed being misused. I compiled a list, including extra word pairs I thought of that followed a similar pattern of either having similar spelling or pronunciation, then reduced this list down to 7 pairs- 4 that I had noticed being confused often (effect-affect, compliment-complement, stationary-stationery and continually-continuously) and 3 that I felt followed similar patterns, but that I had not personally noticed being confused often (travesty-tragedy, amused-bemused, currant-current). Data Collection & Methodology I will collect the data through the provision of an online questionnaire which will consist of multiple-choice questions, providing nominal data. The term nominal is defined as “a discrete form of data classification in which items are not quantified or even arranged in order but are merely allocated to different (often numbered) categories” (Colman, A. M, 2014). Nominal data is most suitable for my research as it will provide categorical responses that are not reliant on a scale, but absolute, expressing a definite opinion. Collecting this type of data will allow me calculate frequencies and percentages of the separate responses. I will be able to acquire quantitative data easily from the clear responses to each question. Quantitative is defined as something “that is, or may be, measured or assessed with respect to or on the basis of quantity; that may be expressed in terms of quantity; quantifiable.” (Oed.com, 2020) This data collection method will enable me to draw definitive conclusions as to which of these words are confused the most. I will advertise the questionnaire to my friends and family aged over 18 years old, asking them to complete it online through a URL link sent to their phone number. The word pairs will be separated so that the question relates to only one of the pair. Participants will be asked to read 14 sentences, with the incorrect word underlined in each sentence, then select the option below that best describes their thoughts and opinions on this usage. I will structure the questionnaire in such a way that similar partner words do not directly following each other in the question order. This will lessen the possibility of demand characteristics. The term Demand Characteristics has been defined as “Features of an experimental situation that encourage certain types of behaviour from the research participants... and can contaminate the results, especially when this behaviour arises from research participants' expectations or preconceptions or from their interpretations of the experimenter's expectations” (Colman, A. M, 2014) I will take into consideration the possibility that participants might guess the true aim of the research and by ensuring that the word pairs are separate I am attempting to avoid participants figuring out the correct use of the word by process of elimination and deciding the best fit. This, in turn, decreases the possibility of inaccuracy; increasing the validity of the results. The term validity is defined as “the quality of being well-founded on fact, or established on sound principles... soundness and strength (of argument, proof, authority, etc.)” (Oed.com, 2020).
Ethical Issues In order to gain informed consent from each participant I provided an online consent form for participants to agree to digitally. This consent form clearly outlines the details and reasons for this study- including how long it will take to fill out and who, along with myself, will have access to the responses- without giving away any information that could influence the participants’ responses and bias the results. I have ensured confidentiality by storing the responses in a secure folder on my computer. I used Google Forms to create the questionnaire and I was able to ensure anonymity by not asking for any personal details from the participants. Therefore, each questionnaire response is completely anonymous even to myself as the researcher. There was no potential threat to participants’ emotional wellbeing as the nature and topic of the questionnaire does not elicit any sensitive information. No possible physical harm could have been caused to participants as the questionnaire was distributed online allowing participants can complete it in the comfort of their own home. I have ensured that I have only used previous research that is open-access/copyright free as a basis for my research. The issue of personal safety does not apply to my study as I did not come into physical contact with participants. I carried out the research from my own home, therefore there was no potential threat to my own safety. Results and Discussion The following charts show the responses for each question from 42 participants (of varying ages between 18-70 years old). The most frequent response for each question is d) ‘It is incorrect’. This demonstrates that although these words are confused by some participants, the majority of participants recognised that the uses of these words are incorrect. Furthermore, questions 7 and 11 (asking about the word pairs bemused and amused) obtained 0 responses for both of the options a) ‘It is correct’ and b) ‘It is acceptable- I would use it’. This would suggest that this particular pair of similar words are the least confused; however, question 7 has the second highest percentage of e) ‘I am not sure’ responses (7%), therefore although no participants think it is correct or would use it themselves, they are not certain it is incorrect either. This seems to suggest that bemused is one of the least understood out of the fourteen words. Moreover, this could simply suggest that it is the lowest frequency word of the fourteen in question, and therefore participants are the least sure about how to use this word. Question 14 (tragedy) scored the same percentage of e) ‘I am not sure’ responses (7%) as question 7, which could similarly suggest that tragedy has a lower general frequency than most of the other words.
Question 13 (compliment) scored the highest percentage of e) responses at 9.3%, the highest percentage of a) ‘It is correct’ responses at 30.2% and it also obtained the lowest number of d) ‘It is incorrect’ responses (44.2%). These results highly suggest that compliment is the most confused of the fourteen words. Question 9 follows closely behind (continuously) with 23.3% of participants thinking it is the correct usage. On the other end of the scale, question 11 (amused) and 6 (currant) obtained the most d) ‘It is incorrect’ responses with 95.3%. This suggests that amused and currant are the least confused words.
Overall, the responses to all fourteen questions gained varied responses. It is interesting to notice how the similar paired words did not always score similarly, for example question 1 (effect) scored 4.7% for a) ‘It is correct’ and 86% for d) ‘It is incorrect’, whereas question 8 (affect) scored quite the significantly higher proportion of 20.9% for a) It is correct and quite the significantly higher proportion 67.4% for d) ‘It is incorrect’. There is a similar pattern with question 2 (complement) and question 13 (compliment). This might suggest that these words are not necessarily confused with their pairs. Having looked into the individual participant questionnaires, question 4 (stationary)and question 10 (stationery) had the most cases of both questions being answered with a) ‘It is correct’. On the contrary, question 7 (bemused) and question 11 (amused) had 0 cases of both questions being answered with a) ‘It is correct’. This proposes that stationary and stationery are most frequently confused whereas bemused and amused are not frequently confused.
In overview, d) ‘It is incorrect’ represents the highest proportion of participant opinions for all questions, although the proportions for each question range between 44.2% - 95.3%. Question 5 (travesty) and question 13 (compliment) have the lowest proportions of d) responses out of all of the questions, but even though d) is still the highest proportioned response in both cases, they both demonstrate that a higher proportion of participants think these usages are at least acceptable- 48.9% answered with a), b) or c) for question 5 and 46.5% answered a), b) or c) for question 13.
Conclusion It can be concluded that most people think that each of these incorrect uses are in fact incorrect. All of these words are misunderstood by at least a few people. Amused and bemused are the least, if not even at all, confused pair. Current and currant closely follow, appearing to be the next least confused word pair. Interestingly, pairs did not necessarily score similarly, demonstrating that word pairs are not always confused with their similar words, for example; one word of the pair is thought of as correct and the other is thought of as incorrect. Thus, illustrating that they are often individually misunderstood rather than having simply taken on the meaning of their similar word. Looking at all of the individual words in question, separate from their similar pair words, it can be stated that amused and currant are the least misunderstood. Nevertheless, it is noticeable that stationary and stationery are the most confused pair, having elicited the most ‘It is correct’ responses for both questions from the same participants- indicating misunderstanding and confusion with their similar word. Tragedy and travesty, and continuously and continually also follow this trend, only slightly less frequently. This research has also highlighted that compliment is the most misunderstood individual word. Furthermore, it can be inferred that people are the least certain about the meaning of bemused- eliciting the most ‘I am not sure’ responses to its use in question, it appears to be the least understood in general. Overall, this research has obtained varied responses to the different commonly confused words, yet, it confidently presents that people do confuse the meanings of these word pairs, only to different extents and most evidently depending on the individual rather than a unanimity.
Summary Most confused pair: stationary-stationery Most misunderstood word: compliment Least confused pair: amused-bemused Least misunderstood word: amused and currant
References:
Bruk, D., 2018. 30 Common Words You're Using All Wrong [online] Best Life. Available at: <https://bestlifeonline.com/30-common-words-youre-using-all-wrong/> [Accessed 30 April 2020].
Coleman, A. M, 2014. Dictionary of Psychology. 3rd ed. [online] Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.224. Available at: <https://www.oxfordreference.com/> [Accessed 30 April 2020].
Gill, M. 2013. Have We Literally Broken The English Language? [online] The Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/13/literally-broken-english-language-definition> [Accessed 30 April 2020].
Haden, J., 2015. 75 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Dumb. [online] Inc.com. Available at: <https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/75-incorrectly-used-words-that-can-make-you-look-dumb.html> [Accessed 30 April 2020].
Nerlich, B. Chamizo Domínguez, P. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 2003. The use of literally: Vice or virtue. [online] 1(1), pp. 193-206. Available at: <https://bit.ly/2Wrlidl> [Accessed 30 April 2020].
Oed.com. 2020. Home: Oxford English Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/155923?redirectedFrom=quantitative#eid> [Accessed 30 April 2020].
Park, S., 2016. Literally Does Not Always Mean Literally: A Corpus-based Diachronic Study on Literally as An Intensifier. [online] Semantic Scholar. Available at: <http://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/138389/1/8_%EB%B0%95%EC%84%B8%EB%AF%B8.pdf> [Accessed 30 April 2020].
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