One other type of slip may provide some clues to how the brain tries to make sense of the auditory signal it receives. These have been called slips of the ear and can result, for example, in our hearing great ape and wondering why someone should be looking for one in his office. (The speaker actually said “gray tape.”) A similar type of misunderstanding seems to be behind the child’s report that in Sunday school, everyone was singing about a bear called “Gladly” who was cross-eyed. The source of this slip turned out to be a line from a religious song that went Gladly the cross I’d bear. It may also be the case that some malapropisms (e.g. transcendental medication) originate as slips of the ear

Some of these humorous examples of slips may give us a clue to the normal workings of the human brain as it copes with language. However, some problems with Language and the brain 161 language production and comprehension are the result of much more serious disorders in brain function.