Posts from the “Language” Category

Unnecessary "Grammar"

Posted on April 2, 2009

I’ve just discovered a blog after my own heart, The “Blog” of Unnecessary Quotation Marks, whose photo (above) gives a better description than I can of the site’s mission. The blog author isn’t a grammar nazi and doesn’t even particularly mind these misuses–just thinks it’s fun to catalogue them.

Still, it kind of makes me want to turn my former posts about wrong words (everyday/every day) into a full-fledged blog (or hope someone else will!), or at least point out that loose is not the same as lose.

Photo linked to and property of Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks

Categories: Amusements, Language

The Skeleton of Human Language

Posted on March 30, 2009

Adam’s Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans
By Derek Bickerton
Hill and Wang; 286 pages; $27.50

“Language is what makes us human. Maybe it’s the only thing that makes us human,” asserts Hawai`i linguist Derek Bickerton in his new book “Adam’s Tongue.” Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Hawai`i and author of “Bastard Tongues,” an exploration of pidgin and creole languages, Bickerton is certainly au fait on this topic, and shares his experience with the confidence that anyone undertaking a thought experiment as grand as the origin of language would have to maintain. Reading “Adam’s Tongue” is like stepping back into the classroom of a quirky, vibrant, impassioned thinker engaging in a most perplexing problem: How did language arise, and which came first: language or complex thought?

Central to Bickerton’s theory is that both the human-centric research approach, which deems humans superior beings, and the primate-centric view that we only need look to primates for answers to language origin are both red herrings, erroneously placing humans at the center of evolution study. Instead, Bickerton’s foundation is “niche construction theory” (species evolve by adapting their environment to their use), and this and other complicated topics—such as can apes really talk, communication systems of bees and ants (our closest linguistic cousins, he says), how scavenging habits may have opened the door to protolanguages, and language merge—are simplified just enough for the layperson to grasp and digest.

First Bickerton methodically sets out the groundwork for his theory, establishing a clear test that his must pass. Then he’s off—acting as his own devil’s advocate, laying out counterpoints and refuting them, impaling his previous assumptions and those of well known behaviorists, biologists, religions and non-religions like intelligent design, and other linguists, including part of Noam Chomsky’s standpoint on language evolution, because Bickerton boldly claims that “on the subject of how language evolved, if on nothing else, [Chomsky is] completely wrong.” At the same time Bickerton continually evokes visual scenarios to help us imagine the world of early humans, building suspense by ending chapters with a cliffhanger, as if to keep us coming back to next week’s lecture.

Throughout, his tone remains conversational, asking the reader to remember caveats and keep points in mind for later, noting when he’s digressing and always exercising complete control over material. The ride through serious debates and scientific issues is lighting-quick and informal, though supported with extensive notes and research. He acts as a personal tour guide through early history of language, always having fun, employing humorous subsection titles, metaphors and stories, speaking with the joy of his life’s work in his trademark provocative style.

Only during his final point, his belief that “language came first and enabled human thinking,” does the book get a bit dense and technical, yet it doesn’t compromise the sturdiness of his argument, or his clever case that his theory should be the cornerstone of “the opening of a new field of inquiry.” After reading this basic version of his theory, readers can as he intended “get at least the skeleton of a full human language up and running.” And that is more than enough to cause a stir in his field and most readers to never think of language in quite the same way again.

–Reviewed by Christine Thomas
Special to the Honolulu Advertiser: Friday, March 27, 2009

Categories: Aloha, Hawaii Authors, Language, Nonfiction

Alphabet Soup

Posted on February 9, 2009

Event of the Week:

Check out the Mission Houses Museum’s new exhibition Alphabet Soup: Literacy, Language & Learning. This family-friendly exhibit illustrates the history of the Hawaiian alphabet through early printed works, objects from their permanent collection, the printing press, and original art books.

The exhibit launches February 13, but the evening before on February 12 from 3 to 8 pm the public is welcome to the opening event featuring food, music (including Hawaiian alphabet songs), and demonstrations of their historic Ramage Printing Press.

Families, history buffs, early readers, and bibliophiles gather and rejoice about the craftsmanship of books!

Where: Chamberlain House Galleries,
Mission Houses Museum, Honolulu

When: February 12, 3 to 8 pm (exhibit runs 2/13 – 6/13, 2009)

What:

Categories: Art and Architecture, Events, Language

Gift Guide: For the Word Lover

Posted on December 16, 2008

The lover of words needs but two things: more words and deeper knowledge of them.

The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English
By Henry Hitchings
FSG; 440 pages

Henry Hitchings wrote The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English to encourage us to stop and think about the words we use. But he’s no grammar-disciplinarian–instead his book traces the history of English vocabulary and words’ witness to the past and social change to spin enchanting real-life stories of the people, places and things that shaped the words that fall from pen and tongue. (He also reminds us that English has co-opted words from more than 350 other languages – where does shampoo come from?).

Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, … With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory
By Roy Blount Jr.
FSG; 364 pages

In his thoroughly enjoyable twenty-first book, the product of one hell of a forty years of making a living as a writer, Blount asserts, persuades, illustrates, humorously plays around, instructs, and argues that the relation between a word and its meaning is far from arbitrary by assembling his own “glossographia” of words. Like “agenda: Why is this a pejorative term? What’s wrong with having an agenda? I wish to helpp I had more of one. (Is that good English? ‘More of one’?)…”, muskrat, louce, scratch, love… You won’t be able to utter another word without deconstructing and smiling.

Tinfish 18 1/2: Poetry Puzzles and Games
Edited by Susan M. Schultz
Tinfish Press, 107 pages

Through the perceptions of five poets and recent University of Hawai’i-Manoa master’s graduates, this newest Tinfish release aims to portray not the Hawai’i of marketing campaigns but the real place known to those who live here now. Throughout, puzzles and games entice readers to connect and deconstruct, making plain our own participation in the creation of this portrait of words — perhaps the book’s most remarkable achievement.

Light Years: A Girlhood in Hawai’i
By Susanna Moore
Grove Atlantic; 195 pages

Writers must be lovers of words, influenced by their potions from an earlier age. Author Susanna Moore is no exception, and she details the power of words over her girlhood in her native Hawai’i in her delightful new memoir, Light Years. Woven throughout spare yet penetrating recollections of childhood and island life (like body surfing off Makapu’u) are treasured literature excerpts such as from The History by Herodotus, Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and Heyerdahls’ Kon Tiki. But it’s glimpses of Moore’s inner life that mesmerize above all.

From Unincorporated Territory
By Craig Santos Perez
Tinfish; 98 pages

Poet–an architect of words–and co-founder of Achiote Press, Craig Santos Perez uses the verse in his latest collection to give voice to past Guamanian narratives that have been silenced, contextualizing his efforts to be one of remembrance and recovery. A native of Guam, Perez unpacks his country’s political fury, empowering himself and his fellow Guamanians through stories and personal journeys, standing up for the place that on some maps, doesn’t even exist.

Categories: Aloha, gift guides, Language

What’s in a Name?

Posted on October 7, 2008

Maverick:
n and adj

history here.

Definition:

1- unbranded cattle

2- one who refuses to conform to the views of a particular party or group

3- a thing obtained dishonestly

Given this, who are you calling a maverick?

Categories: Words

Grammar Rant

Posted on October 5, 2008

I admit it (though this will come as no surprise to my friends). Grammatical errors in signs and advertisements and labels irk me to no end. My rants on the topic have even caused me to put foot in mouth (like the time I told someone that I couldn’t stand City Mill’s slogan “Price Right Everyday” because of the misuse/misspelling of ‘everyday’, not realizing they were intimately connected with the company) or simply talk too much about it.

So it was with some delight that I read this article in the Guardian UK, which was at one point my hometown paper, about how:

“Britain’s baffling collection of ungrammatical, misspelt, out of date and plain wrong public signs is to have a national audit, with the public recruited as error spotters.”

Here’s one piece of accompanying photographic evidence:

Why does it seem that only in Britain will a lobby press “for the punctuation to be restored to what new signs mistakenly called New Kings Road,” and make the local council be “overcome with shame”?

And why is it that here in Hawai’i, Ka Lei Eggs must assert “”Ka Lei Eggs, country fresh, everyday”?

Is the only reason I care because it affects me personally, as when editors refuse to keep my spelling of “Thomas’s” in phrases such as “Read more of Christine Thomas’s writing here”?

Futurist Jim Dator might think I am being oppressive; after all, as he told me during our interview last year, he views reading as a form of mind control:

“For many years I’ve had a fight against teaching English. We are, as far as I know, the only society that teaches its native language at the University level and teaches it over and over and over. I think that’s absolutely ridiculous. … My criteria is: Can other people understand what you’re writing? If so, then you’re communicating and that’s all you need. The rest is style. … The emphasis on proper speaking and writing is really political oppression. … It’s a way to make thought conform to what somebody thinks is acceptable. It’s a way of intimidation.”

As someone who uses words as my toolbox, and who tries to communicate clearly and lucidly with these tools, perhaps I end up caring about them more than others do, just as the painter has a higher respect for treatment of brushes, the financial analyst for exacting percentages, and Cheney for ultimate secrecy, than do I.

But for once and for all: ‘everyday’ is an adjective only. ‘every day’ is an adverb.

That means:
Ka Lei Eggs are fresh every day.
City Mill is priced right every day.
My blog is available at an everyday low price.

All right (note the spelling).
I’m done now.

Categories: Amusements, Words, Writing

Why Text Messaging Matters

Posted on September 12, 2008

In a world where texting often replaces talking, emailing overtakes writing, and educating online instead of in-person is becoming the norm, words (especially written ones) are perhaps even more important than ever whilst also being largely undervalued as the English language is corrupted. (If I have to hear or read one more person say or write “I thought to myself”!)

Henry Hitchings, an author who was born the year I was, appears to agree, and has written The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English to encourage us to stop and think about the words we use. But he’s no grammar-disciplinarian–instead his book traces the history of English vocabulary and words’ witness to the past and social change to spin enchanting real-life stories of the people, places and things that shaped the words that fall from pen and tongue. (He also reminds us that English has co-opted words from more than 350 other languages – where does shampoo come from?).

The first chapter is Ensemble, and here’s a peek at the first lines:

“Ensemble.

Together, at the same time; the united performance of all voices

From the French, which derives from the late Latin insimul, comprising in, ‘in’, and simul, ‘at the same time’

‘All these trifling things…collectively form that pleasing je ne sais quoi, that ensemble‘ – Lord Chesterfield, 1748

On a smoky October morning in 1697, a Puritan magistrate called Samuel Sewall went to visit the Lieutenant Governor at Dorchester, which is now a suburb of Boston on the American east coast. Born in England, in a rural part of Hampshire, Sewall had arrived in American as an adolescent. He had studie at Harvard, had managed the Boston printing press, and in 1692 had been one of the nine judges appointed to hear the Salem witch trials. Not long before his trip to Dorchester he had publicly expressed shame over his role in the last of these, but that October morning this bulky, big-framed figure had more appetizing business on his mind.”

-Henry Hitchings, The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English

Categories: first lines, Nonfiction, Words

One Who Travels

Posted on October 5, 2007

Photo exclusive property of Christine Thomas

Literary Lotus is taking a wee vacation–that’s why in the post below I’ve left you something to do: contribute your favorite saying. This way I’ll have something new to which to return when I get back early next week.

Here’s one to start you off, a Hawaiian proverb from ‘Olelo No’eau : Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings by Mary Kawena Pukui.

2496: `Olelo i ke aka ka hele ho`okahi: One who travels alone has but his shadow to talk to. (said by Hi`iaka as she was leaving Kilauea on her quest for Lohi`au)

Categories: Holiday, Language, My Events, Photography

The Ruminating Raconteur

Posted on October 4, 2007

A few weeks ago I asked for your favorite word. After including some of mine as well, I collected thirty-five samples, now presented here in mini-dictionary form. Instead of constructing a poem from the words (though I challenge readers to do so!), I did use 2, 4, 9, 18, 26, 28 and 33 in a recent review. Go on, don’t be insouciant–use one today in your blog post or in conversation.

But don’t stop there–on to sayings. Whether corporate cliches or proverbs from our elders, we’ve got ’em, use them, in writing perhaps try to avoid them or at least use them wisely, and now we can ruminate (#29) on them. One I used recently: Whatever curdles your cream, a version of to each his own, whatever floats your boat, and so forth . . .

And you? I’d love to know your favorite sayings, either ones you love to use, or love to hate.

1. adumbrate:

report or represent in an outline

2. anodyne:

deliberately uncontentious or inoffensive

3. bollocks:

expression of contempt

4. chatoyant:

having a changeable luster, like a cat’s eye

5. desuetude:

the cessation of use, discontinuance of practice or custom

6. embellish:

make more attractive by adding features

7. epitome:

perfect example of a quality or type

8. ethereal:

extremely delicate or light, too perfect for this world

9. fossick:

to rummage, search

10. fostoogle:

confuse

11. gloaming:

twilight, dusk

12. hubris:

excessive pride or self-confidence

13. hyperbole:

exaggerated claims not meant to be taken literally

14. imponderable:

difficult to assess or estimate

15. infinitesimal:

extremely small

16. insouciance:

casual lack of concern, indifference

17. knackered:

tired out, exhausted

18. legerdemain:

skillful use of hands when performing conjuring tricks

19. masticate:

chew

20. mellifluous:

sweet or musical, pleasant to hear

21. myopic:

lacking imagination, foresight, or intellectual insight

22. nadir:

lowest point in the fortunes or a person or organization

23. nefarious:

wicked or criminal

24. nestle:

lie comfortably within or against something

25. penultimate:

second to last in a series

26. protean:

tending to change frequently or easily

27. quagmire:

current Iraq war [okay: awkward, complex or hazardous situation]

28. raconteur:

person who tells anecdotes in a skillful or amusing way

29. ruminate:

think deeply about something

30. smithereens:

small pieces

31. snarky:

sharply critical, cutting, snide

32. spifflicate:

treat roughly or severely, destroy

33. success:

accomplishment of an aim or purpose

34. swivet:

a fluster or panic

35. tangelo:

a hybrid of the tangerine and grapefruit

Definitions from the OED

Categories: Amusements, Language, Writing

Not your usual argot

Posted on September 20, 2007

As might be guessed from Monday’s post, I’m reading Dirda’s Classics for Pleasure. There’s much to learn from Dirda as a critic, but also for anyone looking to build vocabulary. Here are 20 words I’ve learned and been reminded of while reading his essays:

antinomian – view that Christians are released from the obligation of observing moral law
arch – affected playful teasing
argot – the jargon or slang of a particular group or class
bathos – anticlimax created by unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the ridiculous
bruit – spread a report or rumor widely
costive – constipated
crepuscular – relating to twilight
dithyramb – choral hymn of ancient Greece
encomium – a speech or writing that praises highly
epigrammatic – concise, clever, amusing
etiology – the cause or reason for something
irrupt – enter forcibly or suddenly
jingoism – extreme patriotism, especially in the form of aggressive or warlike foreign policy
lapidary – and elegant and concise statement
lubricious – displaying or intending to arouse sexual desire
purlieus – areas near or surrounding a place
sanguine – cheerfully optimistic
scabrous – indecent, salacious
venal – motivated by susceptibility to bribery
venery – sexual indulgence

Dirda seems especially fond, given the repetition, of these five words:

acme – point at which something is at the best, most successful
winsome – attractive or appealing in character
quotidian – mundane
chicanery – trickery to achieve a legal, political, or financial purpose
quicksilver – moves and changes quickly, hard to contain

All definitions from the OED

Categories: Amusements, Language

Posts from the “Language” Category

Posted on April 2, 2009

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Posted on March 30, 2009

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Posted on February 9, 2009

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Posted on December 16, 2008

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Posted on October 7, 2008

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Posted on September 20, 2007

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