Facing life with a smile!

Facing life with a smile!
Click on my photo to go to http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Susan-Grigor/Products

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Twin Babies Converse

Here is a beautiful example of children catching the sounds of adult talk without being able to form the words yet.  They have the 'music' of the language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY

Sunday, March 13, 2011

E34 Emphatic Order


A while back in E26, I talked about emphasizing particular words in a sentence.

This article is about how to put the important data in a place where it will carry a punch.  Before I give these examples let’s review standard order.  (The grey word are never spoken nor written.  They are given for those to whom English grammar is a new subject.)  Skip it if you know this.


OK, let’s look at variations of emphatic order.  In exclamations, you place the emphatic word or idea in an important position, usually at the beginning in a short sentence:
            How lovely the bride looks!
            What courage he displayed!

  1. Put it first.
    1. Standard:  He went over.
    2. Emphatic: Over he went.

  1. Use repetition.
    1. Emphatic: Don’t do it tomorrow; don’t do it this afternoon; do it now.

  1. Delay key words.
    1. Standard: My marks are disgraceful, my father says.
    2. Emphatic: My marks are, my father says, disgraceful.

  1. Eliminate the unnecessary word or phrase.
    1. Standard: We all voted her captain unanimously.
    2. Emphatic: We voted her captain unanimously.

  1. Use the Active Voice
    1. Standard: A good time was had by all of us.  (expository)
    2. Emphatic: We all had a good time.  (narrative)

Make it memorable.  People remember best the part of the sentence (and lesson or essay) that is closest.  Thus they remember best the last thing they read or hear, and then next best they remember the first thing that they read or hear.  That is why we put the thesis at the beginning and the conclusion at the end: even if the anecdotes or facts are forgotten, the ‘gist’ of the idea will be captured.

Which version of these sentences would Henry David Thoreau have chosen?
            Give me truth, rather than love, or money or fame.
            Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

Which of these sentence do you thin is the stronger one?
            Your success will depend on you, not on me.
            Your success will depend not on me, but on you.

            The jury found him guilty after deliberating for several hours.
            After deliberating for several hours, the jury found him guilty.

            I will never go buy that brand.
            Never again will I buy that brand.

Place parenthetical expressions such as I think, as they say, I am told, on the other hand, toward the middle of the sentence as in example 3 above in order to emphasize the key information.

Anti-climax is used for humour.  Put the trivial point in the emphatic position to draw the laugh:
            Confess?  I’ll confess anything — murder, arson, embezzlement, forgery, piracy, stealing candy from babies!  What would you have me confess?



Sunday, March 6, 2011

E33 Degrees of Comparison

Any grammar handbook or website will give you a standard definition of the degrees of comparison of adjectives and of adverbs.  They are the positive, comparative and the superlative.   The latter are usually signalled by the suffixes er and est (or ier and iest) or by more and most (or less and least/fewer and fewest).

The positive is the usual use in which you describe one person or action: Mom is usually kind.
The comparative is for describing two people or actions: Her mom is often kind, but my mom is more often kinder.
The superlative is for comparing three or more persons or actions: Her mom is often kind, your mom is more often kinder, but my mom is most often kindest.

But there is also a word game of the name Degrees of Comparison in which synonyms or antonyms are used to indicate differences.  It is always played with the pronouns He/She/They, plus You, plus I/We thus:
    He is pig-headed; you are stubborn; but I am resolute.
    She is cheap; you are frugal; but I am economical.
    They are totally profligate; you are a spend-thrift; but I support the economy.

Always the rule in this game is to find the word that denigrates the people in the 3rd person and compliments the people in the first person.  Unfortunately, many people play this game for real to justify their contempt for others and their justification of themselves.

A good thesaurus or  a website such as http://www.synonyms.net  will help you.

E32 Spelling Dictations

Another interesting German word that was discussed in A.Word.A.Day is 'diktat', which means

Def: 1. An order or decree imposed without popular consent.
2. A harsh settlement imposed upon a defeated party.

In English we might use the noun "dictate" for that. 

"Dictate" is also used to mean a common practice of schoolteachers: the weekly or monthly 'dictation'.  And that makes me think of the way we need to teach spelling.  If the student is to be tested by writing the word as spoken by the teacher in a weekly dictation, the student has to study the word by sounding it out while practising writing it.  After all, this is how the student will write it while writing a story, letter or essay.

When the child is older, he may also write whole sentences or paragraphs that are dictated by the teacher—who will expect the student to supply the correct punctuation as well as the correct spelling.  Many students will hate this because it may reveal gaps in their knowledge, and good teacher will use their failures as suggestions for further personal or class lessons.  




E31 Choosing Synonyms


The German compound word 'sitzfleisch ' has an interesting definition.

Def: 1. The ability to sit through or tolerate something boring.
2. The ability to endure or persist in a task.


I want to draw your attention to this paragraph discussion its usage, particularly to the words "politeness wants that the guest has to decide".

"A very common understanding in Germany is: you have guests and politeness wants that the guest has to decide when he wants to leave. Sometimes there are guests who stay and stay.  You want to go to bed but the guest sits and sits; we say 'He has sitzfleisch.'"

In English, although we can say "That car wants washing."  or "The meat needs more salt." and "This email requires an immediate answer."  There is a subtle difference in the connotations.  "Wants" comes from 'want' as in the situation of poverty or famine and means "has a lack of".  "Needs" comes from 'need' as in 'necessity'—without the salt the food is unpalatable or that the meat will rot without sufficient salt to preserve it when it is stored in the autumn for the winter.   "Requires" is another kind of necessity, and it implies the formal rules of politeness or protocol.

In the paragraph above I would have chosen "requires".

Choosing the right word among a set of synonyms requires a subtle knowledge of the connotations (related meanings) from checking the word origins and usages.  If one reads a lot of books and such, one can acquire a knowledge of "how the word is used" in many situations.  But that might take hours and hours of reading.  Not everyone is prepared to do that much reading nor enjoys it.  The use of a good dictionary can save you that much reading.

Even so, we may choose incorrectly due to inexperience or due to using what "sounds right" in the local parlance.  That is one of the reasons that students are required to write and write in school: to display one's experience or inexperience with words so that the teacher can point you to the most appropriate choice.  Kids who hate to read out loud or to hand in their writing for editing, are missing out on the opportunity to learn those subtleties of meaning.

Students need to learn to give themselves the break of learning; and teachers need to give them the break of distinguishing between a learning opportunity as opposed to a testing situation.