When I first read Erard’s article there were many terms that I did not really understand. One word that was challenging for me to understand was “pseudo-mistake.” The first time I came across this word I thought it meant a mistake that was made but wasn’t suppose to happen, but then I decided to look up this word. When I did some research on this word I discovered that “pseudo-mistake” is a term meaning it is useful to help your understand a situation in a new way, even if it’s wrong. After I did some reading I began to understand that the metaphor “paintbrush as a pump” was a unit of meaning for “pseudo-mistake.” I did not really understand the example that the author gave “paintbrush is a kind of pump.” The first time I read this article the only idea that came to my mind about this metaphor was that Erard was comparing two common objects with a similar function. Although, when I reread Erard’s article for the second time I thought about this metaphor a little more than I did before. When I think of a painting with a paint brush I think of the paint brush brushing the surface with paint. Although, when I heard of the metaphor pseudo-mistake and paint brush as a pump I started to think of a paint brush as a pump more and more. I thought of a paint brush working by holding the paint in the middle of the bristles and as you wipe the paint onto the surface, the paintbrush pumps down the paint within the middle of the bristles. Although, that is not how paintbrushes really work because if that was how paint brushes worked, you wouldn’t need to keep dipping your brush back into the paint bucket. But, that is how I started to understand metaphors more and the understanding of pseudo-mistake. I now understand that metaphors allow people to think in different ways, even if that way is the wrong way.
Links for websites and definitions:
Pseudo- not actually but having the appearance of; pretended; false or spurious; sham.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/pseudo
Aptness- the quality of being appropriate or suitable
en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition.aptness
Conventional- what is generally done or believed
http://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/conventional
