Tag: English language

Determination.

I hope that you enjoy reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where six of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic was chosen by Maria the gaelikaa. The five other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, gaelikaa, Maxi, Paul, Shackman, and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!

I first have to determine whether Maria meant the topic in the way that I am using it in this sentence or to indicate firmness of purpose. Knowing Maria at a personal level too, I suspect that it is the latter as she is one determined lady who will not let anything come in her way once she is determined to do something.

Secondly, I am glad that Grannymar will not be writing for the LBC as she is likely to suggest that I eat dictionaries for breakfast. Not that it will stop her from commenting on this post but I hope that she will spare me that whipping and use the term in the third sense of deciding of the nature or outcome of something.

Are you surprised that I am rather lost at this point of time? The English language is enough to drive one crazy is it not?

I am however determined to write in the sense that Maria hopefully intended.

When I picture most people in association with the word determination, I cannot help add an adjective to the word. Now, doesn’t grim determination sound better? And that is why I have never been a great fan of being a man with grim determination to achieve something. I have been more of the type who sets out to achieve things with gay abandon. Now, I use the word gay in the old fashioned, my generation meaning and wonder if that usage gets some determined do-gooders from going after me. You see the problem with the English language?

Parenting.

Parenting

I was struggling with a particularly difficult word during my daily tryst with crossword puzzles when I asked Ranjan to help me. Ranjan simply said, “google for it dad” and pushed off. I said to Manjiri a bemused observer of the scene that it is now the turn of Ranjan to be my parent.

I mentioned this to another friend who had called up for something else and he said that I should now read a book a review of which he had just read. I googled for it and this is what I found.

Apart from anything else, it costs 80 GBP and I really do not need to worry any more about parenting.

Strangely enough, just the other day on Facebook, I had posted this video on the use of English language where Fry talks about nouns becoming verbs.

This post is a classic example. The title is a noun parent that has now become a verb and further, google, a noun too has become a verb.

To revert to the topic under discussion, it is a measure of the times that we live in that serious studies are undertaken about a natural process and tomes are written about, published and sold for 80 GBP! I parented a son who has turned out to be quite a nice young fellow as have many of my relatives and friends with similar outcomes and when we had some problems, we simply consulted an elder parent or a GP if the problem was something to do with the child’s health. Today, I suppose parenting means acquiring some specific skill sets the absence of which can have serious repercussions on our societies!

NUTS!

A Language Challenge. A Poser.

In my post A post Specially For Ursula, gaelikaa left this comment.

“You want to marry Ursula?”

It is written and read and not spoken and heard. So, I have got multiple problems with that simple question.

“The English language is rather like a monster accordion, stretchable at the whim of the editor, compressible ad lib.”
~Robert Burchfield, lexicographer (1923-2004)

Let me explain my problem. The question could be answered differently for each of these following emphasis.

YOU want to marry Ursula?

You WANT to marry Ursula?

You want to MARRY Ursula?

You want to marry URSULA?

You see my problem? I am not able to compress it to adlib. I don’t know quite what gaelikaa had in mind when she asked the question.

gaelikaa, it seems to me that you have not been reading all the comments in my posts. Ursula and I have been betrothed to each other, on and off, that is, for some time now.

I am sure that Ursula is as keen as I am to know what alternative emphasis should be taken by me as your intent.

Perhaps we should let my regular readers who are familiar with the three personalities concerned to choose!

You can of course answer, but I will keep it pending for publication, till the others have had a crack at it. Fair enough?

Letters.

I just cannot resist this temptation.

The English language has 26 letters in the alphabet. In a fount of type, 206 characters are required. These are made up of Roman lower case, capitals, and small capitals; included are the diphthongs and ligatures, the retaining characters being the accented letters. Accented letters are those with the grave, acute, circumflex, diaeresis, or tilde, and the cedilla. To these characters must be added the figures, fractions, points, brackets, reference marks, and commercial and mathematical signs in common use.

The frequency of use of each letter is as follows:
A 8.17%
B 1.49%
C 2.78%
D 4.25%
E 12.70%
F 2.23%
G 2.02%
H 6.09%
I 6.97%
J 0.15%
K 0.77%
L 4.03%
M 2.41%
N 6.75%
O 7.51%
P 1.93%
Q 0.10%
R 5.99%
S 6.33%
T 9.06%
U 2.76%
V 0.98%
W 2.36%
X 0.15%
Y 1.97%
Z 0.07%

Now, do you really want me to proceed any further?

I hope that you enjoyed reading another post of the Friday Loose Bloggers’ Consortium when eleven of us post on the same topic chosen by one of us. Today’s topic has been chosen by Grannymar.

Please do visit Ashok, Conrad, Grannymar, Magpie11, Maria, Gaelikaa, Helen, Judy, Anu and Ginger to see ten other views on the same topic. Some of these bloggers may be preoccupied with vacations, examinations, family problems and/or romance, so be a little indulgent in case they do not post or post late.