Slippage

The preface to chapter 5 of Hofstadter’s book reveals an introduction to the concept of slippage and the program that Hofstadter worked on that deals with making analogies, called Copycat. Hofstadter does a great job in describing slippage, that is slippage from a cognitive stand point and not to be confused with a lack of mechanical traction. Hofstadter uses the following examples to explain the concept of cognitive slippage (when dealing with oration):

“No one could get tickets on that flane.” This is a slippage of combing flight and plane.

“Don’t shell so loud.” This is a slippage of the words shout and yell.

Question: “Plastic bag alright?”
Reply: “I prefer a wood one… uhh, a… a paper one please.”

The question and reply slippage from above is a different kind of slippage than the combination of two words that mean the same thing within the given context. But the question and reply slippage which occurs demonstrates that slippage seems to combine like minded concepts. That is to say that in the above examples that the combination or replacement of one word for another, involves aspect of likeness. Flane, which is a combination of flight and plane, both deal with locomotion through the air, shell which is a combination of shout and yell, both deal with someone talking in a loud, maybe even aggressive manner. The wood for paper replacement for the third example, deals with the idea that paper is made from wood and that grocery bags (contextually based for this example) have a brown color like wood, unlike writing paper which tends to be white.