Summary: We depend on language a lot, often taking for granted how speech works. It only takes one slight hiccup--in either speaking or hearing--for "excuse me while I kiss the sky" to become "excuse me while I kiss this guy." This is the research zone in which the University of Oregon's Melissa Baese-Berk works. She's an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics, studying speech production and perception. An example of her work: trying to figure out if Neil Armstrong said "small step for A
