Linguistic confusion from mother & pa, apparently (5,8)
I believe the answer is:
mixed metaphor
'linguistic confusion from mother pa apparently' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'linguistic confusion from mother pa' is the wordplay.
'linguistic confusion' becomes 'mixed' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'from' indicates anagramming the letters (the anagram comes from the same letters).
'mother'+'pa'='motherpa'
'motherpa' is an anagram of 'metaphor'.
'mixed'+'metaphor'='MIXED METAPHOR'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mixed metaphor that I've seen before include "Incongruous combination of descriptive figures of speech" , "Ridiculous image" , ""A rolling stone is worth two in the bush", for example" , "Ridiculous combination of two figures of speech" , "Incompatible figure of speech" .)