Perception and Reinterpretation of English Song Lyrics by Native Speakers of Japanese: A Case Study of Samples From the TV-Show Soramimi-Hour

Abstract

Cross-linguistic mondegreens occur when foreign song lyrics are misperceived and reinterpreted in the listener's native language. In Japan, such humorous reinterpretations of non-native song lyrics are known as soramimi (空耳, “mishearing”). Word plays of this kind do not only have an entertaining character for listeners, but they also offer a valuable source to identify and describe potential phonological processes which can be observed in native Japanese listeners' adaptations of English song lyrics into Japanese. We hypothesized that the reinterpretation of English song lyrics by listeners is a result of the perception of non-native auditory input through the first language's phonological and morphological system. That is, misperceptions do not occur arbitrarily, but are governed by the phonological and morpho-phonological rules of the listener's first language system. To test this hypothesis, we examined a corpus containing 60 English-Japanese mondegreens taken from the Japanese TV-show Soramimi Awā (Soramimi Hour). Results confirmed our hypothesis: The Japanese adaptations were observed to follow different phonological processes which aimed to subject the non-native auditory input to the phonological rules of Japanese.

A Semantic Analysis of Cross-Linguistic Mondegreens: Implications on How Filipinos Interpret Meanings

“…Since the beginning of this paper, it has been argued that although mondegreens have been defined as a phenomenon of auditory illusion (Scherling et al, 2022), they still have semantic implications because the lines and words are altered from their original forms. Therefore, this phenomenon has not been explored to its full potential since studies that have been done on the subject have chiefly been inclined to favor a single linguistic aspect (i.e., phonological).…”

“…Such labels can be applied to various contextual discourses, which can be lush domains for such a phenomenon. Furthermore, Scherling, Kornder, and Kelly (2022) mention that mondegreens are usually misperceived auditory phenomena related to songs from an individual's native language. However, findings reveal that these can also occur transversely in multiple languages.…”

“…In their study, it was revealed that expectations and prior knowledge had a strong influence on the perception of mondegreens. Also, in the study of Scherling et al (2022), it was found that cross-linguistic mondegreens emerge due to misperception and reinterpretation of foreign lyrics into one's L1. In Japan, this is called soramimi, which literally means mishearing.…”

Tourist Attractions in Campursari Lyrics: Analysis of Figurative Language and of Meaning

“…Lyric is the words of a song which can include a series of verses, the longer sections of the song that tell the story, and a refrain, a short phrase repeated at the end of every verse (Delis, 2022;Hornby et al, 2010;Scherling et al, 2022). Song refers to pieces of music that have words, especially popular songs such as those one hears on the radio (Griffee, 1992;Han, 2021;Mangelsdorf et al, 2021).…”

Ослышки Как Повод Для Коммуникативных Неудач

“…Они особенно часто встречаются у дошкольников (Круглякова 2007), при восприятии песен (Beck et al 2014, конкретные примеры см. 18 странных фраз), могут быть основой появления ошибок на письме (Северская 2022) и способом изучения иностранного языка (Панченко 2015), хотя гул, беспокойство и недостаточно хорошее владение иным языком препятствуют адекватной идентификации сообщения (Scherling et al 2022). На ослышки влияет не только слуховая чуткость (Meyer, Ptok 2011), но также кругозор, образование, словарный запас и развитость ассоциативной компетенции адресата сообщения.…”