Malapropisms Words are stored unevenly, some parts are more prominent than others. This is known as the bathtub effect, by analogy with someone lying in the tub with only their head and feet visible. The inflammable Pope example I opened with is a good example of the consequences of the bathtub effect for slips of the tongue. A basic feature of the skeleton is the number of syllables. In malapropisms there is a high rate of syllable number retention.
Words have a basic rhythm of alternating strong and weak syllables.
When malapropisms maintain the number of syllables, they also retain the metrical structure. If a malapropism departs from this pattern, an unstressed syllable is likely to disappear. Semantic Slips Examining the form of slips of the tongue reveals the multifarious links between words in the mental lexicon. Words are stored in semantic fields and words that cluster together at the same level of detail are known as coordinates. Many similarities have been found between the errors of aphasics and slips of the tongue of normal speakers.