WORDSMITH
Writing a lipogram
Deepti

Language gives interesting hobbies to people; think of a person who decides to write a particular work without using a certain alphabet. Gyles Brandreth rewrote Hamlet without using any ‘I’. Such a text is called a lipogram and here is an example of a nursery rhyme written without using ‘e’:

Now, try to complete this one!

The best way to learn a language is to spend a lot of time around people who use and will make you use it. It has been proved by research that children become fluent users of English when they go to schools where it is the medium of communication and live in homes where it is spoken regularly. Of course, this does not mean that you rap a child’s knuckles when the mother tongue is spoken! But, make sure that the environment in your home is bilingual. A bilingual language user uses two languages effortlessly, all the time. If this is not possible, just make sure that you frequent daily anyplace where English is spoken fluently.

A report says that ‘many respectful citizens signed the petition’. Here, the correct word is ‘respectable’ and not ‘respectful’. The former word means ‘displaying socially acceptable standards in appearance and behavior’ whereas the latter means ‘having or showing respect for someone, especially someone older than you or senior to you’.

Proverbs represent a very interesting use of language because sometimes the real message is difficult to understand. They are not always ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ variety of simple messages. For instance, ‘in the lake of lies there are many dead fish’ warns that lies may claim many casualties, but one has to exert the grey matter to get the message. Another one says, ‘money isn’t found under the horse’s hoof ‘, meaning, ‘wealth does not come without effort’. Here is one for you to work out: ‘sleep faster, we need the pillows’. Any guesses?