Normally, we don’t think about grammar as we talk and probably do so when we write only when there’s a question of correct form. Grammar involves the total use of a language, how words combine to form sentences; it is not simply a question of right vs. wrong usage or vocabulary. Those who are multilingual have greater awareness of grammatical structures in languages than the rest of us because they shift from one language system to another.
It’s awesome to understand and speak more than one language, but duality can present problems for those who write in a language other than their first or primary language. Phrasing in one language can be completely correct, totally acceptable, but then turn out to be deemed incorrect in a different language—the use of double negatives, for instance. In English, a double negative is outlawed, verboten, not right at any time. In Spanish, applying emphasis through the double negative form is acceptable, at times expected or required. Another example is that articles (a, an, and the) in the English language don’t identify gender, but in French, articles do indicate the gender of a noun. Is the surfboard "la" or "le"?
Considering the examples mentioned above, a student who is in the process of learning a new language realizes quickly that word-for-word translations are not always going to work, at least not precisely as planned. The grammar of one language may be unlike the grammar of the next one, resulting in some confusion or stylistic awkwardness.
One way to figure out how to go from one language to the other is to actively and consciously compare grammars, how each language handles specific parts of speech. Knowing where languages differ in adjective, adverb, subject, verb placement, etc., should help increase the bilingual or multilingual student’s ability to move from one language to another.
In sum, the study of grammar (in the sense of how words are used to form sentences) is essential to the student who wishes to be in command of more than one language. Finding points of comparison and differences gives one who studies different languages at a structural level an edge when it comes time to write in the new language. Simpler ways to master an additional language involve concentrated listening, maybe opting for the captions on TV programs in the new language, and just conversing in the new language at every opportunity in order to become familiar with its nuances.
Since surfer slang is not actually a foreign language, no matter what my composition professor said about my first college essay, I look with complete admiration at those who do speak more than one language and wonder at their intellectual feats.
See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Why Language Rules
Before people begin to play games, they ask what the rules are. If the game comes with instructions, all the players need to understand the language in which the rules are written if they plan to compete.
Take texting, for instance. While texting is fine for casual conversations with trusted friends, no one wants to see game instructions written in the shorthand version of letters subbing for words. Besides games, there are usually instructions for setting up new equipment. I wouldn’t want to see LOL at the end of the instructions, especially if instead of laughing out loud the manufacturer meant lots of luck. Actually, either message would be bad news for me if I expect to be able to use the new equipment because I’d need lots of luck and probably wouldn’t be laughing out loud as I plugged in ten different weirdly color-coded connections.
Another primary reason that formal - grammatically correct - English is necessary in life is that legal contracts are written using it. I am certain that you’d never sign a contract to buy a house or car if it was written in the new shorthand of text messaging, and you wouldn’t sign up for a job with the job description ending in BTW (by the way) with all kinds of hideous additions or subtractions to whatever it is you thought the work would be.
Communication isn’t always easy, but if there is not a system agreed upon for meanings, communication becomes impossible or leads to misunderstanding. In circumstances where your livelihood or safety or security depends on clearly written communication, the language best used is formal, grammatically correct English (not at all like times when someone suddenly yells “Shark!”).
Among your friends as you text, you have probably developed certain abbreviations that mean what they mean only to the group involved. That’s fine for everyday talk, but no one wants to meet up with a cartel of law makers who have devised a coded language in which to write laws for the rest of us (although sometimes it already seems that way). Having a clear, well-defined language means that we have mutually accepted words and meanings that don’t change with the people using them.
There’s a time and place for different styles of communication. Beyond getting a great grade on your next essay by adhering to the rules governing formal English, all of your life ahead will be made better when you read a contract and know exactly what you are signing, when you open a package to hook up Wndws Nxt VIII and get it to run properly, or when you play a new game with your family or friends with no one arguing about how to play. Texting has its place in informal settings; but to manage all the intricacies of the real world, it’s a smart move to learn formal English and use it. It’s not a smart move to write an essay using slang or text and turn it in to a professor who expects, demands even, a clearly written, grammatically correct paper.
BTW….you truly don’t want to see MEGO (my eyes glaze over) noted anywhere in the margins of a paper you’ve worked on for two weeks. Learning and using the rules that apply to formal English will prevent that from happening…IMHO (in my humble opinion).
See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!
Take texting, for instance. While texting is fine for casual conversations with trusted friends, no one wants to see game instructions written in the shorthand version of letters subbing for words. Besides games, there are usually instructions for setting up new equipment. I wouldn’t want to see LOL at the end of the instructions, especially if instead of laughing out loud the manufacturer meant lots of luck. Actually, either message would be bad news for me if I expect to be able to use the new equipment because I’d need lots of luck and probably wouldn’t be laughing out loud as I plugged in ten different weirdly color-coded connections.
Another primary reason that formal - grammatically correct - English is necessary in life is that legal contracts are written using it. I am certain that you’d never sign a contract to buy a house or car if it was written in the new shorthand of text messaging, and you wouldn’t sign up for a job with the job description ending in BTW (by the way) with all kinds of hideous additions or subtractions to whatever it is you thought the work would be.
Communication isn’t always easy, but if there is not a system agreed upon for meanings, communication becomes impossible or leads to misunderstanding. In circumstances where your livelihood or safety or security depends on clearly written communication, the language best used is formal, grammatically correct English (not at all like times when someone suddenly yells “Shark!”).
Among your friends as you text, you have probably developed certain abbreviations that mean what they mean only to the group involved. That’s fine for everyday talk, but no one wants to meet up with a cartel of law makers who have devised a coded language in which to write laws for the rest of us (although sometimes it already seems that way). Having a clear, well-defined language means that we have mutually accepted words and meanings that don’t change with the people using them.
There’s a time and place for different styles of communication. Beyond getting a great grade on your next essay by adhering to the rules governing formal English, all of your life ahead will be made better when you read a contract and know exactly what you are signing, when you open a package to hook up Wndws Nxt VIII and get it to run properly, or when you play a new game with your family or friends with no one arguing about how to play. Texting has its place in informal settings; but to manage all the intricacies of the real world, it’s a smart move to learn formal English and use it. It’s not a smart move to write an essay using slang or text and turn it in to a professor who expects, demands even, a clearly written, grammatically correct paper.
BTW….you truly don’t want to see MEGO (my eyes glaze over) noted anywhere in the margins of a paper you’ve worked on for two weeks. Learning and using the rules that apply to formal English will prevent that from happening…IMHO (in my humble opinion).
See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Like a Human
You may recall the seagull Greeadbeak from previous blogs, an opinionated bird most interested in corn chips cast her way by tourists on the bay front. You probably also know that actual seagulls on the real bay front are not inclined to have much more personality than any other gulls, at least as far as we humans can know.
When I include Greeadbeak in a blog, I personify her as a talking, thinking bird, much like a human. In short, she has human traits, maybe not the most sterling of human traits, but human, nonetheless.
An official literary term – personification – means to assign human characteristics to another species, to inanimate objects, or to abstract ideas, anything other than human. Many writers employ the technique, which seems natural to me since humans do tend to ascribe their own traits to the rest of the universe and all contained within it.
In literature, instances of personification abound, particularly in poetry; but you need not even open a book to find examples of personification. Song lyrics, like poetry, are filled with personification, for example a guitar that weeps, wind that cries, love that stinks. Disney movies give mice and many other animals or objects (teacups dancing and singing) human characteristics routinely. In our daily lives, we may name our cars or surfboards, lending a human quality to them.
Examples of creatures or objects or ideas given human characteristics in advertising are also ubiquitous, like the industrious little bubbles with eyes, the ones that scrub the tub. You can, doubtless, think of many more instances in which you’ve used personification or noticed it.
A contrasting term - theriomorphic - means giving humans the qualities or traits of animals or objects or abstract ideas. One recent example is a funny Super Bowl commercial in which a man goes after a brand name tortilla chip like a very hungry bird. He flaps his arms and dives for the bag of chips, a lot like Greeadbeak when she sees golden and crisp treats.
It is altogether human to imagine, to use imagery, to attribute to the world our own qualities and attributes or to turn it around and assign some aspect of the world to ourselves, the strength of a rock, the restlessness of a wave.
See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!
When I include Greeadbeak in a blog, I personify her as a talking, thinking bird, much like a human. In short, she has human traits, maybe not the most sterling of human traits, but human, nonetheless.
An official literary term – personification – means to assign human characteristics to another species, to inanimate objects, or to abstract ideas, anything other than human. Many writers employ the technique, which seems natural to me since humans do tend to ascribe their own traits to the rest of the universe and all contained within it.
In literature, instances of personification abound, particularly in poetry; but you need not even open a book to find examples of personification. Song lyrics, like poetry, are filled with personification, for example a guitar that weeps, wind that cries, love that stinks. Disney movies give mice and many other animals or objects (teacups dancing and singing) human characteristics routinely. In our daily lives, we may name our cars or surfboards, lending a human quality to them.
Examples of creatures or objects or ideas given human characteristics in advertising are also ubiquitous, like the industrious little bubbles with eyes, the ones that scrub the tub. You can, doubtless, think of many more instances in which you’ve used personification or noticed it.
A contrasting term - theriomorphic - means giving humans the qualities or traits of animals or objects or abstract ideas. One recent example is a funny Super Bowl commercial in which a man goes after a brand name tortilla chip like a very hungry bird. He flaps his arms and dives for the bag of chips, a lot like Greeadbeak when she sees golden and crisp treats.
It is altogether human to imagine, to use imagery, to attribute to the world our own qualities and attributes or to turn it around and assign some aspect of the world to ourselves, the strength of a rock, the restlessness of a wave.
See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)