science

Lapsus

Lapsus is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lapsus rather than just read about it. In short: In philology, a lapsus (Latin for "lapse, slip, error") is an involuntary mistake made while writing or speaking. Investigations In 1895 an investigation into verbal slips was undertaken by a philologist and a psychologist, Rudolf Meringer and Karl Mayer, who collected many examples and divided them into separate types.

Key takeaways

Lapsus belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lapsus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lapsus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In philology, a lapsus (Latin for "lapse, slip, error") is an involuntary mistake made while writing or speaking.

Investigations In 1895 an investigation into verbal slips was undertaken by a philologist and a psychologist, Rudolf Meringer and Karl Mayer, who collected many examples and divided them into separate types.

Psychoanalysis Freud was to become interested in such mistakes from 1897 onwards, developing an interpretation of slips in terms of their unconscious meaning. Subsequently, followers of his like Ernest Jones developed the theme of lapsus in connection with writing, typing, and misprints. According to Freud's early psychoanalytic theory, a lapsus represents a bungled act that hides an unconscious desire: “the phenomena can be traced back to incompletely suppressed psychical material...pushed away by consciousness”. Jacques Lacan would thoroughly endorse the Freudian interpretation of unconscious motivation in the slip, arguing that “in the lapsus it is...clear that every unsuccessful act is a successful, not to say 'well-turned', discourse”. In the seventies Sebastiano Timpanaro would controversially take up the question again, by offering a mechanistic explanation of all such slips, in opposition to Freud's theories.

Types of lapsus In literature, a number of different types of lapsus are named depending on context:

lapsus linguae (pl. same): slip of the tongue lapsus calami: slip of the pen lapsus manus: slip of the hand; a synonym for lapsus calami lapsus clavis: slip of the key (implying a typewriter or computer keyboard) lapsus memoriae: slip of memory

Types of slips of the tongue Slips of the tongue 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) — "flow snurries" instead of "snow flurries". Each of these five types of error may take various forms:

Anticipation: An early item is corrupted by an element belonging to a later one, thus "reading list" — "leading list" Perseveration or post-sonance: A later item is corrupted by an element belonging to an earlier one Thus "waking rabbits" — "waking wabbits". Deletion: An element is lost, thus "same state" — "same sate" Shift or spoonerism: Moving a letter, thus "black foxes" — "back floxes" Haplology or fusion: Half one word and half the other, thus "stummy" instead of "stomach or tummy" Pun

Motivation Meringer and Mayer highlighted the role of familiar associations and similarities of words and sounds in producing the lapsus. Freud objected that such factors did not cause but only "favour slips of the tongue...in the immense majority of cases my speech is not disturbed by the circumstance that the words I am using recall others with a similar sound...or that familiar associations branch off from them (emphasis copied from original)". Timpanaro later reignited the debate, by maintaining that any given slip can always be explained mechanically without a need for deeper motivation. J. L. Austin had independently seen slips not as revealing a particular complex, but as an ineluctable feature of the human condition, necessitating a continual preparation for excuses and remedial work.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lapsus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lapsus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lapsus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lapsus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lapsus

In research: Lapsus appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lapsus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lapsus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Freudian psychology, Psychoanalytic terminology, Speech error, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lapsus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lapsus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lapsus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lapsus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lapsus in simple terms?

In philology, a lapsus (Latin for "lapse, slip, error") is an involuntary mistake made while writing or speaking. Investigations In 1895 an investigation into verbal slips was undertaken by a philologist and a psychologist, Rudolf Meringer and Karl Mayer, who collected many examples and divided the…

Why does Lapsus matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lapsus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lapsus.