Lapsus

Lapsus is an involuntary mistake made while writing or speaking. According to Freud, in his early psychoanalytic theory it represents a missed deed that hides an unconscious desire.

In literature there are a number of different lapsus depending on the mode of correspondence:
* "Lapsus Linguae" (pl. same): slip of the tongue.
* "Lapsus Calami": slip of the pen. With the variation of "Lapsus Clavis": slip of the typewriting
* "Lapsus Manu": slip of the hand. Similar to "Lapsus Calami".
* "Lapsus Memoriae": slip of memory.

Types of Slips of the Tongue

Slips can happen on any level:
*Syntactic - "is" instead of "was".
*Phrasal slips of tongue - "I'll explain this tornado later".
*Lexical/semantic - "moon full" instead of "full moon".
*Morphological level - "workings paper"
*Phonological (sound slips) - "snow flurries" becoming "flow snurries"

Additionally, each of these three levels of error may take various forms:
*Anticipations: Where an early output item is corrupted by an element belonging to a later one. Thus "reading list" - "leading list".
*Perseverations: Where a later output item is corrupted by an element belonging to an earlier one. Thus "waking rabbits" - "waking wabbits".
*Deletions: Where an output element is somehow totally lost. Thus "same state" - "same sate".
*Shift: Moving a letter. Thus "black foxes" - "back floxes".
*Haplologies: half one word and half the other. Thus "stummy" instead of "stomach or tummy". (Smith, 2003)

ee also

* Freudian slip