|
 |
| M I
N D Y O U
R L A N G U A G E |
How
to boost word power
Sharda Kaushik
But words are things, and a small drop of ink,/Falling like dew,
upon a thought, produces/That which makes thousands, perhaps millions,
think.
—George Gordon Byron
Thoughts
and words are interdependent and aid each other's development.
Words, therefore, form a core element in comprehension of texts. In
the popular sentence completion activity, the learner selects a pair
of options, which on being used separately produce sentences alike in
meaning. Errors can be common but strategies help to figure out
meanings, as seen below:
Modals and nuances
Sharda Kaushik
Controversies
surrounding English usage
interested David Foster Wallace who made them the theme of some of his
essays. The complexities of English usage can compel the best of
writers to seek occasional guidance.
Puzzles
in prepositions
Sharda Kaushik
The
comical phrase “up with which I will not put” is attributed to
Churchill. It marks his protest against the so-called rule that
sentences in English cannot end with a preposition. Apparently,
Churchill reacted to a minor change made to his speech.
...a
rose by any other name would smell as sweet
Sharda Kaushik
Crisp
looked at euphemisms as words which behave like secret agents in
delicate missions. That is only partially right. Euphemisms operate in a
much wider range of situations — from helping individuals and
organisations to sound politically correct to diffusing the harshness of
realities.
Sounds
of silence
His
contemporary George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright, in his desire
to reform the English spelling too had something similar to say about
it: an old foreign alphabet of which only the consonants-and not all
of them-have any agreed speech value. There are many reasons behind
the arbitrariness in pronunciation and spelling in this language. A
few instances follow:
Games
the articles play
Sharda Kaushik
“I am afraid we are not rid of
God
Because we still have faith in
grammar.” —Friederich Nietzsche
Though
grammar is integrated in
English language teaching, the articles continue to challenge the
unsuspecting learner. While students of most Western European languages
like French and Greek are familiar with the use of articles, those of
Indian languages find the concept alien. Their struggle is evident in
the following sentences:
“Tutor was good at making simple things difficult,” said Saina.
Parlance
at ease
Sharda Kaushik
“The word is the Verb, and the Verb is God.” Victor Hugo
It
is perhaps due to the role the verbs play which compels writers
to make such statements. Amidst them, the phrasal verb finds
expression in the English language to lend an air of informality to
what is being said. A phrasal verb is a combination of two or three
words and the unit together carries a single meaning but one phrasal
verb can have more than one meaning.
How
to be word friendly
Sharda Kaushik
As
true for all walks of life, observing conventions is crucial to English
language and usage too. One among such conventions is collocation or
word partnership. As David Crystal puts it, it is “the likelihood that
any particular lexical items will occur in the immediate environment of
any other" though one can never claim to have the last word on
statements made about collocations.
|
