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by Alex in Toulouse
Mon May 15th, 2006 at 08:44:51 AM EST
 | I thought I'd write a short diary about blundering, in its verbal form. Any particular reason? No no, just like that, for no reason ... no hidden agenda, cough cough. |
blunder. v. intr. to make a mistake through stupidity, ignorance, or carelessness
1) Identification
Blundering, in its verbal form, could be construed as an art, if at least for the delicate balancing nature of the material behind it. ie. contrarily to what the dictionary may say, I am in a position to reveal to you that verbal blundering requires a very careful mix of:
- a (momentary?) lack of interest in something/someone
- a propensity towards talking before thinking
- a habit of being easily preoccupied or distracted in given contexts
When a man realises that he has just committed a verbal blunder, a possible reaction of his will be to cover his mouth and blush. Though in some populations the reaction will be a slap on the forehead with the palm of the hand.
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2) Classification
Verbal blundering could be categorised in the following main groups:
- Major verbal blunders
Verbal blunders whose consequences can range from anger to extreme sadness (in the victim of the blunder), and which will make the perpetrator wish s/he was suddenly transported under a rock, miles away. A typical example would be blundering about someone's death.
- Annoying verbal blunders
A verbal blunder which will make the perpretrator feel some degree of guilt, and which will annoy the victim. A typical example would be blundering about someone's sexual orientation.
- Jolly good verbal blunders
This type of verbal blunder is inconsequential, and will at worst provoke a bit of schadenfreude from the victim. A general reaction will instead be one of joyful embarassment for the blunderer, finding himself suddenly surrounded with general laughter. A typical example would be blundering about someone's makeup.
3) Disambiguation
Not everything stupid that comes out of your mouth should be considered as a verbal blunder. For instance I would say that the following phenomenons are not verbal blunders:
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- freudian slips ("I suck at everything I touch")
- intentional ironic mismatches, or basically anything with "intentional" prepended to it ("heh, you look like you slept under a bridge", if perpretator knows that this is not the case). politicians for instance are known to practice carefully crafted blunders, meant to destabilise the victim, and at no embarassement cost for the perpetrator.
- hard knowldege failures ("I'm sorry, I didn't know that Muslims don't eat pork")
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